Snowing Shopping Day

We got our first snow storm of the winter season. The weather people said to expect the snow after noon today. It actually started around 9 a.m. This is how it looked outside Target at around 10 a.m.

This is how it looked around 11 a.m. on the road near my house. I had shopping to do and the weather was not co-operating.

My first stop was the pet food store to get cat food. I don't understand the pet food store. We buy the same thing every month. I get the largest bag of lite cat food they sell and yet it never costs the same. It's advertised price is usually $34.99. Lots of times it's on sale for $29.99. Today it was full price yet I had a $3 off coupon. With tax I still ended up paying $34. I don't understand it.

After the pet food store, I had to go to Target in order to get our white elephant gifts. I found a USB 1 gig external hard drive for $20, a cool picture frame for $10, and a travel Scrabble game for $10. I also picked up some spaghetti sauce that was on sale and some garlic bread to go with it.

After Target, I began my quest to find a graduation dress. I started at Dress Barn. Why oh why do clothes makers think women of larger women want dresses that make them look matronly? Gah. Of course the cuter dresses were all in small sizes or they were out of my size. I found one dress that I kind of liked but I wasn't looking for something I kind of liked. So I left Dress Barn and went next door to The Avenue. They had a cute dress hanging in the window but it was a size 14. When I asked if they had other dresses in the store, they said no that the dress in the window was just to advertise the dresses they had on their website. I said I didn't want to get the dress from the web because it's hard to size/fit them and then if it doesn't fit, I don't have enough time to exchange it. They said that maybe the Burnsville store might have dresses in stock. I laughed and asked if they had seen the weather outside? I wasn't going to drive to Burnsville today.

I decided to drive to the Eden Prairie Mall to see what Lane Bryant might have. One of the girls at The Avenue also suggested Sears and Kohls. I took to the streets and driving slowly and carefully made it to the Eden Prairie Mall in one piece.

I started at Sears. Sears had all their special occasion dresses in one area and again, all the cute ones were the smaller sized dresses. The larger sizes were once again matronly. Arg! I left Sears and headed to Lane Bryant. I struck out there as they didn't have ANY dresses at all. The Lane Bryant worker said the Mall of America store carried dresses but they were the only one. I laughed again and said I would not be driving to the MOA. She said she hadn't been out of the store since she got there at 7 this morning and was it bad. I just laughed again and told her to drive slow and safe on her way home.

My next stop was Kohls. Nothing. On my way to JC Penney's I thought I would stop in Van Maur just to see what they had. Von Maur is kind of hit or miss for me. It's super pricey and very hoity toity. I often find some good deals on clearance but I wasn't holding my breath. I walked to the women's section and asked the clerk where they might have dresses. She said they had some dresses on the clearance rack but that they mostly were selling separates right now. I went to the clearance rack. They had 6 dresses in my size. I took them all. The first two were OK and would work if I really needed them to, but I didn't fall in love. The third one was cute but a tad small. The fourth and fifth one, while marked my size, were too small and I couldn't get the zipped. While trying them on, the clerk brought a black shrug thinking it would be cute with the sleeveless dress I had in my group. That was the sixth dress. I have to say, the sixth dress was my dream dress and I tried it on last hoping it would fit and be my graduation dress. You know where this is going...it fit, the shrug was cute with it and it was on sale! Normally $190, I got the dress for $45. The shrug was $50! I got them both plus a pair of black Spanx nylons. Behold, the dress that makes me feel like a fairy princess:

It's a beautiful midnight blue with black netting and bow. There are little sparkly sparkles on it that makes it look like the midnight sky on a clear night. I love it.

I needed shoes. I didn't even look at Von Maur because I couldn't expect to find such a super deal twice. I tried Payless and Kohl's without luck. I stopped in JC Penney's and found a pair of shoes on the clearance rack. They were normally $40 dollars but marked to $20 with an extra 20% off. Score!

Once I found my dress and shoes, I took back to the snowy streets for home. I got home by 1:30 and showed Bob my treasures. He was suitably impressed (for a man) and told me how pretty my dress was.

The rest of the day I will spend putting up our Christmas decorations. I had hoped to get to a fellow blogger's home to partake in her jewelery sale. I was hoping to find a necklace and earrings to go with the new dress. That might have to be special ordered. I didn't want to drive more than necessary in today's wild and woolly weather.

I am so happy with my dress. I can't wait for graduation.