Plato's Cl-OMG! GIMME!

You guys have heard of Plato's Closet in Red Deer, right? (If not, click the link there.) Its sort of the same idea as Once Upon a Child, only for teens and young adults. My cousin Kim mentioned to me that I should take Gunnar there to look for clothes. So last Saturday, we decided to go.

Its right beside Once Upon a Child (and thank god I listened to Kim's directions how to get there because my GPS told me it was a block north, on the left, stupid GPS). In we went; Gunnar headed straight to the back where the guy section was, but my eyes were immediately pulled to the rows upon rows of shoes, on shelves above the clothes racks. But one pair in particular had me gasping and hauling ass to grab them before the girl browsing that section could spot them. PURPLE patent leather spike heels! ZOMG. And whaddaya know --- size 8! Price? $8. Ya. I know.

WELL. Then I was on a mission, to find every cool pair of shoes in my size and nab them before the sweet young things wandering the store could. Picked up another pair of gold-trimmed brown suede T-strap wedge heels, $5. Checked out the boots, unfortunately the only pair in my size had a wicked-high arch and looked just uncomfortable -- though they were cute.

On to the purses. Found a wicked black leather purse with two huge zipper pockets on the front, very rocker-ish, $6. A hot-pink and black checkered patent leather clasp wallet, $2. I know, right?

Checked out their hats; found a gray small-print hounds-tooth newsboy with two big buttons on either side of the brim, and a black thick canvas-feel hat with buckles and straps on the sides, similar in look to my old favorite black Rbk hat. $4 each. Ya. I know.

Handed off my findings to a poor salesgirl, "Take these and hold them for me, must...continue...shopping..."

I figured I would check out the clothes, see if there were any in my size. The amount of stuff in there is simply staggering and I had no idea where to start. A good pair of well-fitting jeans is always hard to find (especially for my body shape) but I thought I'd see what was available. Rifled through about twenty pairs in my size, found several that looked promising. Added them to my 'try-on-later' pile at the checkout desk.

On to shirts; found about twenty, as well as a beautiful gray button front sweater with 3/4 length bell sleeves. Added them to the pile.

Then it was time to try everything on. Quite the process, as I'm sure you can relate. (Meanwhile, Gunnar had amassed quite the pile of his own and was also ready to try his stuff on.) So there we were, side by side in our changing rooms, me going "Omg Gunnar, I love this shirt, you should see it!" and he's going "You wouldn't believe the stuff I found!" We were like two excited giddy peas in a pod.

So of all the shirts I found, I only kept about eight (most were around $5-6 though two were only $3), and the gray sweater. Oh! And I got a beautiful halter-style black and white dress with a black satin ribbon that ties around the waist, so pretty, $10.

Then it was time to try on the jeans. (And keep in mind that we were only allowed six items at a time in the dressing room, so I had to keep getting redressed to go out and exchange my stuff for more. To top it off, I was wearing a hat --bad hair day-- so had to keep it on AND I had to keep putting my coat back on because I was wearing an ugly shirt that day, doh!)

So I'm trying on pair after pair of jeans and none of them were fitting well. They were all either too long, the legs were too roomy, or the waist was loose. Then I realized... I'd went down a size! YESSS!! What a sweet feeling that was. But that meant having to go back to the jean section and browse through all those sizes. So I did and headed back to the change room with several pairs, two of which ended up being keepers, at $8 each.

You guys, do you know how long its been since I bought a pair of jeans? AGES. And they're nice. Tight enough in the waist to hold everything in but not too tight that I have a muffin top. Legs are closely fitted but not the 'skinny' style. And they're name brand (like I really care but it does make you feel a bit more cool to NOT be wearing jeans from Walmart, haha), not a name brand I recognize but Gunnar told me he knows people who wear that brand. You hear that? Sweet affirmation that I'm not a style dud.

We walked out of the store $200 poorer, but soooo much richer, style-wise. Gunnar picked up somewhere between 10-15 shirts, all the name brands that he likes, at about $5 each; a gray zip-up Adidas hoody that looks brand new for $13; and two pairs of jeans, $8 each. I got my two pairs of shoes, the purse and wallet, the two pairs of jeans, the two hats, the dress, and all those shirts. One of which is a wrap-style purple print silky material that fits (and looks) just right. Can wear it with my new purple spike heels!

We got a 20% off coupon for our next visit (seeing as how we spent so much) and we'll definitely be back. Their stock is constantly coming and going so I'm excited to see what's there next time.

Yay! I finally have cool clothes in my closet!