Black Belt: In Shopping

You see, friends. This is why I need to STOP napping with Ava during the day! Who do I think I am, a toddler? Yikes. So here I sit at 1:30 in the morning and I'm all motivated to write a little something on my blog before I attempt some sleep.

Let me just start by giving one of my best friends, Deena Madsen, credit for the title of this post. Here's the background. This past Sunday, I ventured out into downtown Raleigh to try and find a one-of-a-kind dress, or two, for my sister in law's upcoming wedding. I'm so over prom-like, cocktail dresses, I could scream. I searched online and in the stores for weeks trying to find something that I couldn't live without. Nada. Zilch. Nothin'.

Then, low and behold, in the beautiful boutiques of Raleigh, I finally found some really amazing things. Here's the best part about shopping the little stores: The buyers for these little shops only purchase maybe 5 of one item, in a variety of sizes and then let the crazies, like myself, fight tooth and nail to bring one home. It's cool, I own my crazy. Heck, I write about it all the time! So as I'm walking through the store, "Scout and Molly's", I spy THE ONE. Yup, almost like seeing your wedding dress. Almost. I take it off the rack and to my complete disappointment, it's a "large". Now, I'll fully admit this last year hasn't been the best to my waistline, but a "large", I am not. I could have probably taken the leftover material and made a dress for Ava. (Wait, that's brilliant! Darn...).

Anyway. Here comes the "Black Belt Shopper" in me.

I spend the next 72 hours scouring the internet, calling other stores, and even emailing the PR representative AND customer service rep for the company, Alice and Trixie, asking for help. I'm actually being serious.

Finally, the CS rep hunts down my dress somewhere in the lovely state of Georgia where they, FOR FREE, shipped it to another store in North Carolina, who then shipped it, FOR FREE, to my house. My latest stalk on UPS.com tells me that my dress will be at my house by the end of the day tomorrow.

I think I should do this as a side job, yes? You can't find it? I bet I can...

The icing on the cake for this little experience is that not only was the dress found, it was on sale.

Holla!

And, for your viewing please: THE DRESS! It's so unlike any thing I've ever worn to a wedding and while I don't plan on wearing this to the church, it's FOR SURE going to be out and proud for the reception. It's so perfect and summery!

(A quick shot of the one being sent to me. The lovely girls at Luna, www.shopluna.com , were just the best.)