Feng Shui & Dress Shopping!

Today I built the little bookshelf to add to the living room space. Here are the before and after pictures again and then the additional pictures with the new bookshelf. 

before. closed off.

closed off.

more open and crazy.

the new bookshelf!

things organized properly. 

The only issue might be that the couch is really near the tv on the far end. This won't be an issue once the TV is mounted on the wall (hopefully over a fireplace situation). I really think I like how much more open it makes the living room. I can also see what Lucy and Charlie are doing more easily from the kitchen now! She used to hide behind the couch where I couldn't see her! 

Melanie randomly sent me a link with some details on big dress sales going on around the city. One of the places was Hitched. This is a salon I had read about before and really liked their story! It's a cute story of two best friends who did all the education, get a good job BS and then decided to stop doing that to do something they loved! 

Anyways, they were having a huge sale (which I now realize happens every end of quarter). Up until now I had not tried on any dresses and really have avoided it because I obviously do not want to buy a dress in my current size. Sigh. I keep saying I'm going to work out and lose weight, but that doesn't seem to be happening and the reality is that I need to start looking in the near future for a dress. Evidently one should buy a dress 6 months from the wedding date at the latest. Craziness! Anyways, my pinterest board suggests that there is one very specific type of dress I like which I think will fit the theme. The flowy/ruffly bottom type dress: http://pinterest.com/nalinip11/simple-shore-elegance/

The things that I really love are the ruffles and lace. I obviously want something with a big flowy bottom. 

So anyways, I went in and tried on 6 different styles and materials just to get a feel for dresses. The first two were a disaster! I really didn't like the material of one and three were pretty good. It was a successful experience because I figured out what kind of waistline/fit I like and also decided which materials I did and did not like! It was good to give some dresses a chance because I ended up liking things I never thought I would. 

The event we went to was only to try on the dresses on sale. Their sales were ooc. Dresses that were regularly 3k-5k were anywhere from 500.00 - 1500! So the sizes and styles were limited during this try-on session. 

Some dresses looked INCREDIBLE in person but then pictured so horribly! How a dress looks in pictures is almost as important as how I FEEL in the dress. 

Here's the one I think I loved the most. I felt great in it, it made me look better than any other dress and it had lace and a big bottom. It also has a sash/ribbon aspect which i really like because I think I want to have a ribbon or sash of sorts that matches the bridesmaids color (grey, dark pink or teal). 

Once it's the right size and fitted -- it would look even better! 

The funny thing is I very much dislike the gathers and look of the bottom of this dress (other than the lace) because it looks very traditional and general, but i LOVE the gathers and bottom of this dress in conjunction with the lace! The back is also the prettiest back of a dress I've seen (so far in my looking at dresses). 

Random sidenote: picked up some easter egg necessities for drunken easter egg hunt after cocktail party! =)

So very excited for cocktail party!