Did some shopping

and some exchanging.

I tried on a bunch of dresses and skirts.

Ok... designers who design  pleated skirts with wide pleats that start at the top of your hips are just plain MEAN and obviously hate any woman who doesn't have the body of a 14 year old boy.  AACCKKK!!

Then there is the 'high waisted' style dress, that doesn't take into account the fact some of us at this point in our lives are in possession of low waisted boobs. At least build some underwires into where you think my boobs ought to be sitting, to help keep them in the general vicinity.

There were some no waistline dresses that made me look pregnant, both the form fitting and the bag style.

Lots of skirts and dresses that were just the wrong length. Some were too short to bend over to deal with small kids and some hit me at mid-calf, giving me a dumpy, stunted appearance.

Have I mentioned that Vanity has watched every episode ever of What Not to Wear? Vanity finds duplicating the results of $400 dresses, altered to fit, from New York boutiques with only $50 and Target, Kohls and JCPenny to choose from, very challenging.  Common sense doesn't help matters by knowing damn well I will not be taking in those seams myself or tracking down someone who can.

I did find a  dress though and vanity was so happy it agreed to exchange the permanent hair color for a 20 washes version.

This was my hair - in direct sunlight. Those bottom couple of inches are brassier in normal light

This is my new hair, new dress, my favorite shoes and my favorite shawl. (I am a closet shawl person. Meaning I love shawls, but rarely wear them so they stay in my closet all the time). Excuse the strange look on my face. My camera's timer is not to be relied on. The angle is a little weird because the camera is on a stack of books and slightly tilted. I did end up with a high waisted dress, but it's waistline most closely matched my boob line.

A close up of my shoes (just for Jenni)

We decided after much looking around and pricing things to just give the happy couple cash.

We got the boys little dress shirts & ties and I am hoping to get someone at the wedding to family photo of us, because this will be the first time since Havoc was born that we have dressed up as a family. 

It's DH's niece that is getting married & will be the first time his entire family has been together (assuming they all come),and the first time we have seen all but 2 of them, since his mom died in 2001.  I'm hoping there might be a whole family portrait opportunity.  My kids have only met DH's 2 sisters. His brother came to visit once when Havoc was 4 months old.They have never met their 5 much older first cousins (aged between 21 and 30) or their first cousin once removed, who is 5 months younger than Havoc or any of DH's siblings' spouses. It should be interesting.