So, besides the fact that I woke up today and my loved ones are well, I have tons to celebrate because we are at 25 days until we head off to Paris! I have already started gathering up my clothes, mostly dresses (I wear dresses almost everyday) and super cute wraps and little short scarves to be tied at the neck like during Mary Tyler Moore days. Please don’t tell me that you don’t know who she is! If you don’t, then I am just old! (Actually they were old reruns when I was born, but still!) I also got a couple of summer sweaters.

The best part about the whole thing is that I got these clothes for next to nothing. And for those of you who are fashionistas or love labels, stop reading. Because everything that I got came from Old Navy. Why Old Navy? These are my reasons: Clothes are cheap, The store is in walking distance, They sometimes have cute things, I am a single mom and no longer (at this time anyway) have a Nordstrom budget.

Warning, these pics aren’t the greatest. It is hard to stage clothes and accessories to really show their beauty, unless you have a fab camera or white background, etc. But I think that you will get the point. I care about how I dress pretty much 99 percent of my life. Though my clothes are inexpensive, I still look put together because though my style is plain, I work it. When I feel like it, I put on a red lip and a bangle or small necklace and a scarf and I usually wear a dress which automatically puts me ahead of the curve.:)

This is called a swing dress. I love how the dress gets wide under the arms, it causes it to flow away from the body. I bought this one last week for 27 dollars and went into the store yesterday and got an orange, black and green one. Guess why? They were marked to 7 dollars! They let me get a price adjustment today, so I got to buy more stuff at no cost to me! Is this dress super fab looking or special? No, but nowadays women’s clothing are made with blends, or completely synthetic material and it does not breathe. It will be hot in Paris and though this is casual, I can pair it with a wrap or cardigan when we go into nice boutiques or restaurants, or if it is cold in a museum and it will instantly dress it up.

Same dress in green. So as you see it isn’t really huge when it hangs up, I just spread it out in the 1st pic to show why it is called a swing dress.

I love these wraps because they are light and lively and they will liven up my solid styles. That is one reason I love to buy plain dresses without patterns because you can really jazz up the accessories and not look too over the top. These are summery too and tropical, and from what my guy says, Paris will feel like the tropics in August. So these will be perfect. And paired with a cute sandal, I will look great in the north of France, or the south in Nice or in Deauville in the west. It will translate no matter where we go! Forgot to mention these were originally 16.99 and are now 4 dollars a piece!

These are the cool neck scarves I was talking about. I guess all scarves could be called this, but these are small and can only be worn by being tied at the neck because there is not material to do much else. This was a trend in the 60s/70s/ What goes around comes around! And believe it or not these were less than 3 dollars each! I can’ t remember the original price, but less than 10 for the set is amazing! I will wear these with a top and skirt, or another style dress. The high neck on the swing dress won’t look good with these in my opinion.

I love cardigans and dusters. The grey cardigan on the right is so cute. I got it today for 9 dollars!! It doesn’t have buttons, so it has that loose fit of a wrap sweater, but it isn’t oversized. it is comfy and is a summer weight. As much as I like scarves, sometimes cardis are better choices. The sweater on the right is called a duster because it goes down to the floor, practically. It is sleeveless, and will cover up a dress that shows bra straps, or will just give a dress a little bit of flair. I paid about 30 dollars for it a month ago and plan to wear it on the plane because I want to dress nicely for travel, but comfortably.

I wrote this post because I want people to realize that you can look cute and stylish and have fun with fashion no matter what the budget. I get compliments all of the time, and though I prefer quality clothes, I just can’t spend a lot on shopping right now. Thanks for reading, and I will show some cool stuff I am bringing on the trip for organization, exercise and for entertainment!

simply~

Dee