Outfit for 12/24/13 - Wine Tasting Again!

Coat - Guess

Blouse - Wrapper

Skirt - Guess

Shoes - Nine West

With this outfit I am wearing several of my favorite items.  Of course there is my new red coat, which I just adore.  The pictures really do not do it justice.  It is just so super cute!  There is also my trusty Guess jean skirt, my asymmetrical Wrapper blouse, and lastly my awesome blue pumps!

I think some part of me chose this outfit to be comfy, and relaxed because on this day Jules and I were going wine tasting.  In the past I have been concerned about me being out dressed as a girl, but on this day I was really just concerned with Jules and her well being.  As most of you know she broke her leg, rather severely on Sept 1st.  A couple of weeks ago I asked her if she was up for a shopping trip and she said yes.  I was super excited and we booked a couple of nights out near one of our favorite malls.

I was so impressed with her and her ability to get around (she is still on crutches.)  But while we were out in public, I was so stressed about her safety.  She handled herself just fine and was totally capable but I was still very worried if everything would be okay.  We shopped for a couple of days and everything went fine.  Jules was quite tired, but good.

On our day home, we decided to visit a couple of our favorite wineries.  Now that I look at my outfit and see what I chose to wear and I realize, I was a little stressed.  The two of us had a great day and again everything went fine.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

Love you!

Cross Dressers as Liars

What is it about cross dressing that makes so many of us complacent with deceiving others?  I thought about this, and about writing this post, and just bashing those that deceive but then I thought about myself.  And I am pondering if just by being me, am I actively trying to deceive those around me?  Am I girl, nope, but occasionally I dress as one, and pass myself off as one.  Isn't that deceit?  Yes it is.  I will grant you that.

But I suppose it is a deceit of omission.  I don't tell people that I am a girl.  If anyone were to ask, which has never been done, I would certainly tell anyone that I am a man dressed as a girl.  The way I look at it is, the people that I deceive are the general public, and the general public does not have a need to know about my personal life.

Who does?  My wife.  And my wife has always been privy to my personal private thoughts.  I made a commitment to her when we got married, and part of that is being honest with her, with trusting her, with having her be a part of my life.  And I feel very strongly about this.  I have a very difficult time reading about how so many of you have been CDing for years and have never told your SO.  Honestly it is quite shocking to me.  But even more so than that, is the large numbers of you that not only accept their deceit, you actively encourage it.  I have read more than one post that says "if you want to keep your wife, don't tell her."  Shocking!  How significant is your other if you are unwilling to be honest with them?

Along the same lines are those of you who "borrow" your wife's clothes or your sister's clothes, or your mom's clothes.  These things are just wrong.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I think this all stems from fear of rejection.  We are afraid that others will not understand us and thus we hide who we are and then we justify it by saying, well it is for their own good.  Or it is for the good of the family.  Or some other such nonsense.  Listen, it is not important that you out yourself to the entire world.  The entire world does not need to know your private personal business.  But when you are married, or are planning on getting married, your private personal business becomes you and spouses private personal business.  There is no more me and them, it is you two together.  And together means more than just simply sharing the same space.

If you choose to exclude your spouse you are making a grave mistake.  You think that they will not accept you because of your aberrant behavior, so you allow yourself to do something that no one should accept in a spouse.  You deceive them.  If someone were to tell me that they are leaving their spouse because they can not trust them, I would support that decision fully.

Don't do something that is morally reprehensible because you can't just stand up to your own fears and find out if you spouse has concerns about cross dressing.

Okay, I know, a bit of a rant, but dammit, I feel very strongly about truth and honesty and openness within relationships and about facing your own fears.  By not facing your fear, you are honestly dooming your relationship with deceit.

Okay, rant over.

Love Ya.

Be honest!

Photo credit - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ev0luti0nary/5222712198/

A Day In The Life of a Cross Dresser

Can you see my dog & my hunting makeup?

This past Saturday my day began at 1:30am.  I woke, dressed, and drove to the duck field.  My morning, from about 5:00 to 9:00 was spent hunting ducks.  I got 1, a canvasback, kind of a rare duck for where I go.  I decided to get it stuffed and put it up on my wall.  It is a really cool looking duck.

On the way home I heard someone advertise some firewood for sale.  It sounded like a good deal on some good walnut wood so upon arriving home and unpacking, I called.  A few hours later I was returning back home with a pickup load of wood.  A bunch of it needed cutting down to size and the chainsaw did a short job of it; though my blade was smoking a bit from having it too tight.

Top - Chaus New York

Sweater - 89th & Madison

Jeans - Mossimo

Boots - Nine West

Around 4:00pm I finally got in the shower, had a quick shave, and changed into something cute.  Jules and I got dinner, and then I tried to quickly get finished dressing before our friends, Edward and Vivian came over for game night.  Unfortunately for me, they were on time! and I wasn't!  Oops, sorry guys :(  My tardiness was very minimal, and really only bothersome to myself.

It was during this day that I thought quite a bit about the idea of being a cross dresser.  As I frequently state, I feel that I am truly a cross dresser.  Meaning, I enjoy dressing up in a variety of outfits.  Some of them are more conducive to dressing male, like duck hunting, and some of them I enjoy more dressed as a girl, hanging out with good friends for a fun night.  I do like all of my feminine attire, but I also do really like all of my male attire.  I really like both.

I think this post helps to exemplify the duality that is my life.  With much research I have discovered there is a wide range of folks that call themselves cross dressers, some of us lean more towards one end of the gender spectrum.  I find myself sitting just about in the middle.

And the more I understand this, and accept this, the happier I am.

I hope you are happy.

Love Ya! :)

Outfit for 11/25/13 & My New Coat!

Coat - Guess

Top - Lily White

Tank - Guess

Jeans - Guess

Boots - Nine West

I walked into a Wilson's Suede and Leather and searched the racks.  I wasn't looking for anything in particular, I was more interested in wasting time.  After trying on a large variety of coats by a variety of manufacturers I didn't find anything interesting.  While I was on my way out of the store I spotted this great looking red coat.  I walked up to it and looked for my size.  I had to laugh though when I saw who made it, Guess.

It was amusing to me as I had told myself expressly to not go to the Guess store, as I have been really wanting to branch out into different brands.  I must have looked at a hundred different coats that day.  None of them caught my attention.  Not one.  But this red coat, this red Guess coat, I swear it just called out to me.  "Buy me! Buy me! Buy me!"

I found my size, tried it on, saw my reflection, and I knew I would be walking out of the store with it.  Lucky for me, it was marked down to some ridiculously low price from some ridiculously high price.

That took place back in July.  I bought it when it was about 100 degrees outside, the perfect time to buy a wool coat; if you're looking for a sale that is.  I have been waiting since then for a time cool enough to need to wear it.  I thought it ended up being a perfect match to pair up with the black top.  It worked very well for me.

Hope you are well.

Love ya!

Outfit for 11/20/13 - More Black & White

Top - Chaus New York

Sweater - 89th & Madison

Jeans - Guess

Shoes - Saucony

This is another one of the black and white tops that I purchase from TJMaxx the other day.  I really like this top as it is a cowl neck and they normally do not look good on me at all.  This one though, the neck hangs extra low and thus helps to produce the V neck look that I think helps to make my neck and shoulder look slimmer.  I also like this top in that it is sort of a wrap top, which helps me look extra busty!  Here is a close up of the top, maybe you can better tell what I am talking about.

Today my destination was shopping in a nearby town.  Yet again I needed to go to Costco, but I also needed to run around and go to a few other places.  I so wanted to be just comfy and thus decided on the tennis shoes.  I had a good day, with nothing eventful, just enjoying myself being me. :)

Updates:
- Jules' therapy is progressing. Did I tell you she started physical therapy?  Well she has and it is coming along.  She can now use the crutches to help her to begin to walk again!  Yay wifey!
- I decided to delete a page from this blog.  It was from a couple of years ago titled Reaching Out.  I deleted it because for some odd reason a whole bunch of sites in Russian were linking to it.  Some of the sites were porn sites!  Ugh! The nerve!  I could never actually figure out how or why they were linking to my site, but with deleting the page, stopped the click-through's.  So yeah, whatever was up with that.  Random.
- I recently joined a forum, Crossdressers.com, I am surprised at myself that I have not joined it earlier.  I was never a lurker and just recently found it and thought, hmm... this seems intriguing.  Thus I joined and have been enjoying it so far.  Seems like a good group of people.  So if you have not checked it out, I would recommend it.

Hope you are well and enjoying life and yourself!

Love Ya!

Outfit for 11/13/13

 

Top - Cable & Gauge

Skirt - The Limited

Shoes - New York Transit

Closeup of the embroidery

A little bit ago I posted a potential outfit that I attempted to wear this skirt, but I did not think that it looked very good, so I changed out the skirt.  Here is the picture of the other outfit:

I really like the skirt, but I don't like it in the above outfit.  I do however really like it in the main photo for this post.  I think the difference is that with the pink sweater, I am wearing a black tank top and the black of the tank with the black of the skirt sort of blend together whereas the top from Cable & Gauge provides for a clear break between the two.  The Cable & Gauge top also has a slight flair to the bottom of it that helps to add a bit of a curve to the hips.

I recently purchased the Cable & Gauge top along with two other tops at TJMaxx.  I brought them home and showed Jules my treasures.  I relayed the story of the guy at the checkout counter.  I set down my three items and he said, "Oh, just the one dress today?"  He then picked up, what he thought was just one dress, and discovered that it was actually three different tops.  He then said "Oh, no, I see, all the tops are just black and white."  It was then that it occurred to me that everything I bought was black and white.  And in fact, often many of the main items in my outfits are either black or white.

I began to consider if this was a problem for me or not.  Maybe I am limiting myself.  Maybe I need to branch out more and push myself to embrace the vast array of the color spectrum.  But then again, while writing this and pondering this color conundrum, I've had a realization.  The longer I have been dressing as both genders, the more my female outfits often resemble my male outfits.  I mean my female clothes are clearly female and my male ones are clearly male, but the colors are almost the same.  I tend to wear mainly black or white and use a deep rich single color.

And ya know, I think this works for me.  I like my male outfits, and I like the fact that my female outfits are finally becoming an accurate reflection of who I am and not just simply what I think female me should wear.  It's sort of becoming like my clothes are simply my clothes and not what I think I should wear.  Hmm... Am I even making any sense anymore?  How about this, I like my style!

How about you?  Do you tend to have a distinct style?  Do your female clothes look anything like your male clothes, or are they on completely different ends of the spectrum?

Love Ya!

Outfit for 11/8/13 & Costco Rocks!

 

Top - Converse All-Stars

Tank - Mossimo

Jeans - Guess

Belt - I forget

Shoes - Nine West

Ahh... cooler weather.  The last time I wore these jeans, I was in San Francisco for the day.  I purchased these jeans specifically to be able to wear with flat shoes.  I really like the fit of Guess jeans and I only have one pair, which are super long.  So long that I need to wear a minimum of two inch heels so that they do not drag on the ground.  But these jeans fall just about perfectly for wearing shorter heels or entirely flat shoes.

I wanted to wear something comfortable for my day out as I had a goal for the day - go to Costco and get a picture taken for a new ID card.  I frequently find myself shopping at Costco while dressed as a girl and occasionally I have had a cashier question whether or not I am the person in the picture.  I have never been refused service, but I thought that maybe if I had an ID with a female picture on it that might go over better.

With much trepidation I chose a comfy outfit that I felt confident in and drove myself to Costco.  The entire time the negative nay-saying portion of my mind kept trying to convince me that it was not a good idea.  It knew that something was going to go wrong.  Somehow I would be embarrassed or something would go wrong.  The other half of my brain, the confident, go for it side, kept answering back and saying, nope, I am pretty sure that this will be no big deal.

I got to Costco and went in and walked up to the Member Services counter.  I waited in a small line and when it was my turn I stepped up to the counter and asked the lady if I could have an ID with a different picture and if I could keep my original card as well.  She said "sure," as if I had asked her a for a completely normal request.  She started typing into the computer and I felt she deserved some sort of explanation, even though she did not ask for one in anyway.  I told her "I would like an ID both ID's as sometimes it is confusing for some of your cashiers, depending on which gender I choose to dress as."  She said "Well that is understandable, let's get your picture taken."  I stepped to the appropriate place and she snapped my picture and printed my new card.

Maybe not the best picture, but it is thrilling to me.  That day I shopped at Costco and used my new card when checking out and did not receive a single question.  It was great!  I was so happy that my confident side won out and I asked for what I wanted, because I got it and it was so super easy!

Some updates:
- Jules has started PT and things are going quite well.  She is exercising and slowly but surely gaining back her strength.
- Duck season has started again, so that is something else absorbing my time.  Is there any way we can make it so there is more time somewhere?  I few extra hours in the day, maybe another day added inbetween  Sat and Sun?  Yeah I didn't think so.

Hope you all are well.

Love Ya!

Outfit for 10/28/13 & A Little Outreach

Sweater - Ann Taylor

Tank - Mossimo

Skirt - Guess

Shoes - Nickles

Originally when I had picked out this outfit I did not choose this skirt.  I chose the skirt pictured below:

Skirt - The Limited

But when I tried on the black skirt, I was so not pleased with the look.  I think that with the black skirt and the black tank it provided too much of a large block of color that just did not look right.  I kind of think that it makes me look overweight actually; which I certainly am not.  Plus the addition of the belt is supposed to help define one's waist and help to make one look skinnier, but that is so not what happened with the black skirt.

Obviously I decided against wearing it and I went with my old standby; the Guess skirt.  I really like that jean skirt; I mean I do wear it all of the time!  But I think the jean skirt helps to make the outfit look sooooo much better.  I think the belt also does it job of helping to define my waist with the jean skirt.  Hmm...

Earrings - Random store on Pier 39 - San Francisco

What a horrible picture.  That sure did not work very well.  I thought about not posting it, but those earrings are too cute!  They are the other pair of earrings I bought so many months ago while on a trip to SF.  I showed you the other pair long ago and said I would show the other pair later, well here they are finally.  But gee that picture sure is bad!

A funny thing happened while out and about in the above outfit.  I stopped in at a Rite Aide to pick up some specialty batteries.  I got the batteries and took them to the counter and paid with my credit card, which obviously has my male name on it.  Generally I run my card and hold my ID and CC for the cashier to view, if they would like, which at Target they never seem to look.  But this cashier, looked at my card, and then at me, and then at my card, and I knew what she was doing.

Before she had a chance to speak, I said to her "Yes, that is actually me."  She said "No, come on."  I said "Yup, it is me."  She examined it for awhile longer and then asked "Well how far along are you in your transition?"

This made me stop for a second before responding.  I said "Well, I am not actually transitioning.  Some people are interested in being one or the other, but I am sort of in the middle."  This intrigued her and she asked what I was talking about.  I said "Well sometimes I like presenting as a girl and other times I like presenting as a boy.  I am not really interested in being wholly one or the other."  She said "Well you do it well, have you had many problems with using your ID?"  I told her "Not really.  Occasionally I get some questions, like you did.  But then I take the time to explain myself and people have always understood."

She thanked me and I thanked her and I took my purchases and left.  I was feeling quite pleased with myself as I left the store.  There is always a moment or two for community outreach when others are willing to ask questions and we are willing to be honest with who we are.

Speak up for yourself and be proud of who you are!

Love You!

My Birthday Party Dress

Dress - Calvin Klein

Sweater - 89th & Madison

Shoes - Nine West

While shopping at a Dress Barn I picked this dress off of the clearance rack.  I searched and searched for other possible sizes, but this was the only one.  I was either going to fit this one, or I would never own this dress.  Jules and I visited the dressing room together and began trying on dresses.  It took me several tries to actually get this dress on correctly, and imagine my surprise when Jules was actually able to zip up the back.  It fit very well actually.

I really like the dress for a variety of reasons.  One is the color.  I really like the colors of it.  I am very partial to black and white, if you haven't noticed.  But it also has that wonderful pop of blue, right in the middle.  For svelte girls like myself, it is in the perfect place to help accentuate my hips, which is fabulous!  A second thing I really like about it is the fit.  It is tight, but not too tight, right above the blue color and right below my bust, which is where it should be tight, right at the smallest part of my torso.  The third thing that is great is that it fits my bust wonderfully.  I actually have really great decolletage in it.  The fourth thing I love about it, is that the bottom portion flares out right where my hips are, which also helps to increase the appearance of my hips.  Just fabu!

But there are two things I don't like about it.  One is that it has no arms.  Here I am without the sweater:

The no arms issue is easily solved with the addition of the sweater.  But it had to be the right sweater.  If it was too long, it would make the slimming effect and the hippy effect disappear.  Luckily I had purchased the short sweater some time back and was waiting to pair it with the perfect outfit.  Like this one!  The only other thing I don't like about the dress is that it requires the right occasion to wear an outfit like this.  It just is not appropriate for say shopping at Costco.  But that was solved when my birthday came and an occasion to wear it presented itself.

Edward and Vivian came over for a little dinner and cake with Jules and I.  Jules is still obviously recovering but she felt well enough to have some friends over.  Our two fabulous friends picked up pizza, to my order specifications, as well as a carrot cake, made especially for me.  It was wonderful having them over and I was super thrilled to have an occasion to wear this awesome dress!  I was only a little self conscious that my bra kept peeking out the top of the dress; oh well, life can't be perfect huh?

How about you all - Will you wear fancy dresses for any occasion?  Or does it need to be a special time?  How about your arms?  Are you self conscious about them?  Are you willing to go without something covering them?  What do you think about mine?  Should I get over my worry about them looking too masculine?

Oh, btw, I turned 42 the other day and two days later it was Jules and mine 17th anniversary of being married, though we have actually been together for 27!

Love ya!

Outfit for 9/30/13 & Yay New Shoes!

Top - Anne Taylor

Skirt - Guess

Shoes - Nine West

Today I took the opportunity to go out.  I have been working quite diligently in taking of my wife but I decided that I needed a bit of relief and need to take care of myself as well.  I will be no good to my wife at all if I don't actually take care of myself too.  So... a bit of shopping therapy for me!

My first objective today was to go get my brows threaded.  Wow after only about a month of neglect they sure became quite bushy!  I have been to the location in the mall several times but was quite nervous about going solo to get them done.  But they had to get bush whacked.

This time I decided to not wear any eye makeup beforehand.  If you have never had your brows threaded before, they will have you assist them by holding down your upper eyelid and then stretching your brows a bit with a hand above them.  Often after this process I end up smearing my makeup all over the place.  But this time, with no makeup on, it was no problem at all and I got great results.

After my brows, I headed to TJMaxx.  I have become determined to search the blouse section at every opportunity being as it is quite difficult to obtain good tops, that fit my criteria.  I found nothing, but I did find the great pair of blue suede pumps pictured above.  They are pointy toed, but a small point, so they do a good job at making my feet look smaller.

After a bit of shopping therapy I felt relaxed enough to brave Costco.  Again in the line, the cashier began to question the card I gave her, as it is a picture of my male self.  Before she had time to react, I said to her "yes that is actually my card."  She looked at the card and at me, and said, "this is you?"  To which I smiled, and said "Yup, that is me."  She shrugged her shoulders and rang my stuff up.  Very pleasant!

Updates:
-  Jules is still recovering.  This will be a longggggggg process folks.  I am attempting to hang in there, but boy howdy is it ever stressful!  I had no idea.  We are about a month into it, 4 weeks actually, and we have really only just begun.  We are hanging in there, but the tedium of it all is beginning to grind on both her and I, for just about completely opposite reasons.  She just wants to get up and do stuff, and I just want to be able to sit down and stop doing stuff.  Though it is quite weird.  I find myself doing things I have not done before and actually filling my time with extra things I don't need to do; like organizing all sorts of things.  I think that has to do with me trying to find some sort of order in life that I can't find in things with relation to assisting Jules.  Hmm.... Interesting.

Gotta run. Love Ya!

5 Tips for Being Out and About

1 - Head Up, Shoulders Back, and Boobs Out
Taller people tend to slouch.  And girls that are shy about their boobs tend to slump their shoulders.  But these two habits tend to make one look bad.  When you do not hold your head up high, it makes your neck look larger.  I don't know about your necks but my neck is large enough.  I frequently am quite guilty of this nasty little habit and am constantly reminding myself to keep my head up.  I am proud and keeping my head up shows it as well as makes my neck look smaller, woo-hoo!

Part of dressing as a girl is to wear boobs, but funny enough I am often shy about having them.  I think it is funny as when I first started going out and about I was super shy about my boobs, maybe just like some younger girls.  Be proud of your breasts and put those shoulders back.  It makes your boobs look nicer, but also it helps your shoulders to look smaller.

I think these three things need work because many of us feel too big and we try and make ourselves look smaller, but by doing this we actually make ourselves look bigger.  So stand up tall, put your head up, your shoulders back, and stick your boobs out.

2 - Exude Confidence
This is super hard, but super important.  If you act act insecure then people will sense that and they will treat you differently.  Many people that you meet will feed off of your emotions.  If you act off a bit because you are embarrassed about how you are dressed, then people will tend to treat you off a bit.  You may then interpret that as the people have a problem with you because you are a guy dressed as a woman.  When I am at my utmost in confidence many people won't accept that I actually am a guy.

3 - Dress for the Situation
I like wearing whatever I want to wear, but wearing a fancy dress and super high heels is not always practical.  I will go out for several days at a time with nothing but girl clothes in tow.  I get up just about every morning and go on a walk.  That is a prime example of wearing tennis shoes and sweats as being far more appropriate than just about any dress I own.

I love all of my fancy clothes but I also am practical.  I like to try and be a bit stylish, even with my non-dressy clothes.  I like wearing dresses, but also skirts, and pants, and shorts, and sweats and all of the fun clothes that I bought from the female side of the store.

4 - Look but Don't Be Seen
When I am out I don't like looking at people but I also don't like not looking.  Not looking could be tricky, if I might encounter someone that I know, so I like to be aware of who is around me.  But I really don't like looking at people directly in the eye, unless I am dealing with them directly.  If I am talking with someone I look directly at them, as that is confident.  But if I am just walking around Target, I am not interested in looking at others directly as it makes me paranoid.  And it also makes it so I look less feminine.  Girls do not generally look random people in the eye, but they will look at you when you don't know it. That is what I generally do as well and it leaves me with good feelings.  Not sure why, but it does.

5 - Be Polite
I always try and be super nice and polite when I am dealing with the general public.  I have had to talk with a few managers regarding employee poor conduct, but I have always been polite to these folks.  I really try actually to be extra kind to everyone that I meet.  It makes for a much more pleasant experience with the public when you are the first one to put yourself out there and be nice.

Updates
- Jules is home.  She is doing better then we thought she would be at this point, but it will be a long road of recovery.  We both appreciate everyone's well wishes.  She will get better, one day at a time.  I consider us to have been quite lucky as it could have been much worse.
- She is my main concern at this point, dressing and blogging, are coming in way at the end at this point.  I will continue to dress when I can and write when I can, but so far with my work load tripling or quadrupling we shall see when that occurs.

Hope you all are well.
Love Ya!

Can I Get Some Worldwide Support For My Wife?

Jules and I and a few friends went out for a dove hunt last night at a friend's ranch. We are all standing around, the birds begin to fly, and Jules downs one that sails over into this small ravine. She goes over and attempts to find it. She is standing on the top of a rock pile, determining how she is going to negotiate her way down when out from the rock crevices a rattler strikes out at her. She jumps back, obviously startled, loses her footing, and tumbles off the edge. She fell head first, face down, about 3-4 feet down, and smashed her tibia on a boulder. This caused her to rotate about 180 degrees and falls another 3-4 feet and lands on her back wedged between a boulder and a fallen tree with her gun underneath her and a shooting pain in her leg. 

She calls out for help. I can barely hear her as the birds are now flying hard and heavy. I attempt to go find her and find out why she is calling. I eventually locate her down in the ravine. We get her positioned and work together to get her out. We make it up the hill, I go get the car and alert our other hunting partners. A firefighter in training comes and assists me with getting her into the car. We drive back over to our parking spot and she thinks she is not that bad and tells me to finish the hunt. It is about 7 in the evening and we have about a half hour left.

We keep shooting, her watching from the car, until we are out of time. I get in and drive her to the emergency room. Four hours later, they are giving her morphine and admitting her to the hospital. Here is how bad ass my wife is:

Yeah, so after seeing that, I felt like an f'in a-hole for even considering to continue to shoot, let alone actually doing so.  I realize now, she was in shock.  Adrenaline was coursing through her veins and neither she nor I had any idea at all what a life threatening situation she had just been in.  First of all, the snake could have bitten her and secondly, she could have fallen on her head instead of her leg, thirdly, she could have died from the pure shock of the trauma.

She is lucky to be alive today folks.  She had surgery this morning at 9 and it went as well as could be expected.  She now has a metal plate running the length of her shin and about 8 screws in her tibia holding it all together.

I know this is not my usual fair for this blog, but I thought I would reach out for some worldwide support for my tremendous wife.

Tips For Waxing

Picture courtesy of: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chest_waxing_cropped.jpg

The first time I waxed my body hair I had high hopes.  Hopes for a completely hair free body.  But that has always been my hope, with whatever hair removal tactic I have tried.  And so far I have tried, shaving, depilatory lotions, waxing, and an epilator.

Nothing has done a perfect job, and nothing has been easy or quick to do.  But surprisingly, to me, I have stuck with waxing much longer than I originally thought I would have.  Over the years I have learned a thing or two about it.  I am by no means an expert, but I have a few things to share.

1 - Waxing will not remove every single hair leaving you super smooth and silky.  This is due to a couple of reasons.  One, not all of your hair will be long enough for the wax to grab, hair does grow at different times and thus is different lengths.  Two, many of the hairs will break and not be fully plucked from the follicle.  Three, some hairs are more resilient than others and will resist plucking.

2 - Do it yourself.  While I have never gone to a professional, I can not stomach the thought of paying the fees associated with going to someone.  Also I am concerned with the hygiene of such locations.  Jules went and had a certain area waxed and the results were less than to be desired.  I performed a much better job for her the next time she was willing to give it a go.

3 - Use a professional or semi professional waxing pot.  I use the Gigi waxing pot as well as Dark Honey Wax.  The Dark Honee Wax has worked best for me and does not irritate my skin as some other types have.  I have also tried microwave heated wax, which does not work well at all.  I have also tried prewaxed strips and they do not work well at all either.

4 - Do not give up.  The first time I did it, my chest hair follicles bled.  Oh and it hurt so bad, I should have taken some prescription pain meds first.  The second time, it bled less.  Now, about 20-30 times later, it does not bleed at all, and actually does not hurt that much either.  My results have gotten much better each time I do it.  Think about shaving.  The first time you did it, were you perfect at it?  Probably not.  Nor will it be with waxing.

5 - Do not wax right out of the shower.  Do it towards the end of the day, or the day after you shower.  Your skin should be lightly oily to help the wax not to stick to it.

6 - Do not wax if you need to dress that day, or the next, or even the next.  I tend to give my skin about 4-5 days to recover.  After you wax most likely your skin will have quite a few red spots covering every inch of it.  These spots will lesson within a few days.

So why do I do it?  Mainly because it helps me to be able to keep up with my shaving.  It greatly reduces the amount of hairs that are actively growing at any particular time.  This allows me to shave much more quickly and my skin is much less irritated by the shaving that I need to do.  Also, in spots, the hair appears to no longer be growing back much at all.

It is worth it.  It is painful, but it is worth it.

Good luck.  Oh and yeah, just like shaving, I did mess it up many a time and hurt myself pretty badly.  Sometimes unfortunately I bruised myself and left marks that took a couple of weeks to disappear.  But you can't get better if you don't try.  So give it a whirl, who knows, you just might like it!

Love Ya & Good Luck!

Outfit for Thursday 8/22/13

White Top - Guess

Blue Tank - Mossimo

Skirt - Guess

Shoes - Bare Traps

A while back I went shopping at a nearby outlet mall and I was determined to buy something, other than Guess.  I went into many, many stores, trying on all sorts of items.  Nothing piqued my interest though.  I find that the longer I go dressing as a girl, the more picky I am about the clothes I will buy.  Once upon a time, all it really took was for the clothes to be girls clothes to warrant a purchase.

Now, the clothes really need to do something for me.  If the clothes aren't helping me to look better in one way or another, then it is a pass.  I look for clothes, first and foremost, that fit well.  They need to be the right size; not too big and not too small.  They also need to have the right cut.  Even a simple t-shirt type of top can have a feminine cut to it, like the one I am wearing above.  It is just a simple cotton shirt, but with the addition of the ruching on the bottom, it really feminizes it.

Point being, I found nothing in other stores that had nicely feminine clothes.  I walked into the Guess store, trying to not find things to buy, as I have an overly Guess stocked wardrobe.  Of course, I found a few things to try on, and once I put them on, I had to have them.  I really just do not understand why other clothing manufacturers do not do what Guess does.  Almost all of their clothes have small little feminine touches as well as excellent feminizing cuts to them.  I ended up leaving the store with two shirts and a great pair of jeans that makes my butt look great!  Isn't that what a good pair of jeans is supposed to do?

Oh, the top above, made my bust look pretty small when I first tried it on.  But with the addition of the blue tank underneath it, which allowed the white top to be worn a little lower around the bust, it really helped to emphasize things.

Hope you all are doing well!  :)  Oh and yes, I do have the ring on.  I have taken it off to go to work, but most of the rest of the time my new little sparkly friend is where it should be.

Love ya!

I Can't Take It Off / My Wife Rocks!

Diamond & Sapphire Wedding Ring by Blue Nile

Which is currently residing on my finger!

2 days ago was Jules and mine 8th anniversary of being married as wife and wife.  I wrote about it in detail last year, if you happened to miss it go here.

This year, this past weekend Jules asked me to go with her out for a day of food, movies, shopping, and general fun.  I gladly accepted and we went out for the day.  We started off with an awesome pedicure, which was super relaxing.

Afterwards we went out to a Korean BBQ place for lunch.  While waiting for lunch to arrive Jules handed me the following card.

I started to tear up, as I don't think she could have said anything else that could have touched more.  For many years actually I have had the ring picked out and I waited.  I didn't want it as much as I wanted for her to want to get me a real woman's wedding ring.  Does that make any sense?

Hmm... maybe.

What I know is that today we went and picked up the ring.  It had been sent to us, but we missed the FedEx truck yesterday and had to wait til today.  My wife is so awesome that she suggested that after work on the way to the FedEx location that I take the time to get dressed.  Wow.  What a wife.  What a spouse.  What a friend.

We got the ring, I opened the package and was stunned.  I nervously slipped it on my finger as Jules drove us to dinner.  OMG.  It is stunning. Absolutely STUNNING.  Sorry for yelling, but it is awesome.  I have spent much time just staring at it, watching the stunning sparkles of the beautiful diamonds and deep rich sapphires.  I mean, diamonds!  Diamonds!

Okay, really diamonds are a girls best friend.

But really, no matter how gorgeous the ring is, the fact that Jules wanted to get it for me means so much more.

Wow.

Do I really have to ever take it off?

At least I can't ever take off what Jules has given to me.

Love you! :)

Outfit for 8-12-13

Sweater - Ann Taylor

Tank - Mossimo

Skirt - Guess

Flip Flops - What's What by Aerosoles

I really like this sweater.  Obviously, I love the color.  But more than that, in the pictures, to me at least, the color helps my arms look smaller.  Which is kind of funny, as it is so bright!  But, paired with the black tank, in this case, my eyes are drawn to the black color instead of the pink.  Not sure why that is, or if it appears that way to you, but to me it does.

Yesterday I wore this outfit out for shopping, food, and the movies.  I finally found myself in a Payless Shoe store as we were trying to waste some time before dinner.  And yes, if you do not already know, I can verify for you that they have women's shoes up to size 13!  How cool is that!  Well, at least for those of you with larger feet that is.  I do try and keep my eyes open for those of you that are in need!  I found a cute pair of heels.  It was really funny, as Jules picked out a cute pair of blue with white polka dots platform wedges and I thought they were super cute and I looked and they had the same shoe but in a pale pink.  Of course for only $10 I had to have them.  Have I ever shared with you all that Jules and I have the same size shoe?  We always say we are going to borrow the others shoes but I don't know if we ever have.  Funny!

Anyways, it was cool to find the same shoe in two different colors.  I can totally pull of the pale pink color because my skin has a darker tone to it, whereas with Jules, her skin is more pinkish than mine and while she loves the pale pinky color, it just sort of blends too much with her skin tone.  So for her the blue shoes looked great and really made for a nice pop of color.

If you can't tell, or don't already know this about me, I espouse contrasting colors.  I think with your clothes, colors that contrast more with your skin tone look great.  And I also think the same thing about eye shadows.  I am so jealous of Jules' pretty brown eyes as she can totally pull off all sorts of cool colored shadows, whereas with me they just do not look as good.  Colors make her pretty eyes pop so much more, but with me, earth tones really make my blue/green eyes look great.

Interesting stuff here people!  What do you think?  Do you like contrasting colors or do you prefer similar colors more so?  Am I alone in my beliefs?  Am I totally off base?  Should I go for a super bright blue eyeshadow?  Thoughts?

Okay, Love Ya!

:)

Five Of My Favorite Products

This is one of my all time favorites, it is Sparkle Skin Body Exfoliating Cream.  I do quite a bit of body hair waxing, as I suspect many of you do and I also do quite a bit a shaving.  These two things combined cause me to get quite a few ingrown hairs.  I have tried many different products over the years and many different methods of dealing with those wonderful annoying little red bumps.  Using this particular product really helps.  I can't tell you that it completely removes all of my ingrown hairs, but it helps a lot!  Besides that it gives me such soft smooth sexy feeling skin that I totally love it!

This is two of my favorite ways to remove makeup.  The first is to round bottle, called Take Off the Day.  With Take Off the Day, I shake it vigorously, and put a tiny, tiny, amount on a cotton round and use it specifically on my eyes.  It does a great job of removing the most stubborn eye makeup and yet is totally gentle on my eyes.  I can easily use it to remove liner from the inside edge of my bottom lashes and have never felt it irritate my eyes ever.

The second product is the Wash Away Gel Cleanser.  After I clean my eyes I go into the shower and take a small amount of this product, put it into the palms of my hands, and use it to wash my face.  This removes any remaining makeup that I have on.  It also removes any residual leftover from the Take Off the Day, as that can feel a bit oily, but after using the second product, my face feels squeaky clean!

This is two of my newest products, maybe a couple of weeks old, but I love them!  With the Naked 2 palette from Urban Decay I think it is a great bargain, at $50.  So many of my other palettes have at most four colors in them and they cost just about as much as this one palette.  It also comes with a wonderful Urban Decay brush, which just feels luxuriously soft and yummy.  One of the really cool things about this palette is that lots of people have put video tutorials up on You-Tube showing different ways to use all of the various colors.  I also really like it as my eyes are kind of a blue green color, (if you ask my wife, she will tell you that my eyes actually change colors from blue to green.)  This palette is composed of various earth tone colors which really help to bring out the colorful nature of my eyes.  Colors on blue/green eyes don't work as well as earth tones.  So for me, this palette is perfect!!

The second product in the picture is the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil, in black.  OMG I LOVE this liner!  I have tried so many liners, with ill fated effects, but this liner, this wonderful little pencil is a joy to use.  It glides on very smoothly and effortlessly.  I can put it on with a larger line or a skinny little line and once you apply it, you have a minute or so to be able to gently smudge the line as well.  This makes it easier to get the liner down directly onto the lash line.  I also have used this on the inner line of my lower lashes and this product stays put!  Not many products that I have tried have been able to do that. When I got my makeover from UD the lady used this, but I did not buy it.  By the end of the day, when I saw that it was still exactly where she placed it, I had to have it!

Okay.  That is all.

Love Ya!

Outfit for Friday 8/2/13

Top - Banana Republic

Skirt - Trina Turk

Shoes - Fitzwell

It's such a bummer that you can't really see the fabric of the skirt.  It is kind of lace like.  It is not my normal skirt length but I liked the fabric so much that I had to get it.  Well that and the fact that I got it for like $10 - $15.  What a steal!

This is what I decided to wear when I went out to dinner one night on my trip.  While out and about I pushed myself to go out to dinner, by myself, just as I would if I was travelling with Jules.  This particular night I went to Cattlemen's.  If you don't know, it is a steak house/bar.  I tend to stay out of bars as I think of them as pick up places, and that is not what I am out looking for.  But when I got to the restaurant, I just out of my car and walked into the front door.  The door closed behind me and I swear every head in the place turned and looked me up and down!

Wow, a bit stressful.  Everyone got their look in and returned to their conversations.  It turns out I walked into the bar entrance.  I walked up to the first waiter I saw and asked him where the restaurant was.  He was a bit taken aback by my voice, but explained the layout of the establishment.  I fund the restaurant portion and had a great meal.  Ya know, not that many people go out to restaurant by themselves.  It is kind of a different experience.  Not bad, just different.  A bit boring though.

Oh yeah, I wore some of the new earrings I got in SF and said I would show you:

I was so super happy when I found them as they stated they were nickle free!  Yay! :)  Which reminds me, I went to Target recently and all of the earrings I found also stated they were nickle free.  So cool.  The world is finally catching up to those of us that are nickle challenged.

Other tidbits-
- I have ended my dressing streak.  I think I ended up dressing for about 18 days in a row.  Wow.  It was interesting and fun.
- I finally graduated to receiving some hate speech submitted to my blog in the form of some really nasty comments.  Which is exactly why I have moderation on!  To that person and anyone else that cares:

Photo from:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/70704369@N06/6584859247/

Okay  That's all.

Love ya.  Love yourself!  Love others!

Making Purchases

When I first started going out dressed as a girl, I avoided paying for anything.  I really just did not want to interact that much with the public.  I thought they would ridicule me.  Which I have since discovered to be just plain wrong.

The easiest way to make purchases while dressed as someone other than your ID, is to not have to use your ID and to pay cash.  Ah, good old cash.  Trust me, merchants want your money regardless of how you are dressed.  I have never had anyone refuse to take my cash.  It would be quite stupid of anyone to refuse to take my cash simply because of how I am dressed.  And no one ever has.  Not too surprising.  If you have any reservations about it, go with cash.  Cash rules the world.

Now a little more tricky, sometimes, is trying to use your credit/debit cards.  In using those options most merchants will check your ID.  I picked up a tip from some other place about this process.  The tip was, to hand them you ID, and say something witty like, "Yes I know, my hair is a little shorter in that photo."  I used that all of the time.  People would smile, and say "Yeah, it's okay."  And then they would run my card and give me my purchases.

It occurred to me at some point though that I no longer wanted to have to say that to people.  I think this was about the time that I realized I wasn't fooling anyone.  Everyone knows that I am a man dressed as a woman, and the thing that I began to see is, they know and they don't care.  Which nicely does away with worries about passing.  With this knowledge I just began handing people my ID and letting them do whatever they wanted to.

For the past five to ten years, people mostly just took my stuff and ran the card through the machine, without much of anything.  Occasionally they will hold up the ID and compare my ID picture to me.  They generally see the resemblance, as well as my big smile, and then they run the card.

Twice though, some other things have occurred.  Once was at Costco.  The lady ran my purchases, I handed her my ID, and she said "so... who do these cards belong to?"  I told her that it was me and smiled.  She hesitated for a little bit, and I repeated that it was mine and smiled bigger.  She studied the cards for awhile and then it clicked.  She ran my cards through the machine and then suggested that I go over to guest services and get a new ID with a new picture on it to match my new gender.  I thought it was polite of her, and testament to my increasing ability.  I did not go get a new ID though as I don't always go to Costco dressed as a girl.  I wish they would let me have two cards, come to think of it, I should go ask them about that. Hmmm...

My largest issue with purchasing items came yesterday at Walmart.  Maybe it is my new wig, though I doubt that.  I handed the cashier my ID and she said "You can't use this card because this is not you."  I smiled and said, yeah it is.  She looked at me, back at the card, back at me,, back at the card, and said "nope, you can't use this as this is not you."  I smiled again, and said, "Yeah, trust me, that is me."  She said that she had to call a manager.  The manager came over and said, "You can't use this card, as this is not you."  I smiled bigger and said "Yeah that is me."  I then said my little line about my hair being shorter in that picture.  She said nope.  I said yeah, and again smiled.  (Niceness will get you everywhere people.)  She studied the card for awhile and me for even longer.  I smiled.  She said "okay," and allowed me to make the purchase.  I thanked her for being understanding.

That experience was truly an anomaly.  I just returned recently from a five day trip all around California, all by myself, dressed as a girl the entire time.  I went shopping at numerous locations and paid with my credit card the entire time.  I stayed at hotels and gave them my male ID.  I made lots and lots of very expensive purchases throughout the whole time and never once was ever questioned.  Even though I did have my new wig on.  Nobody questioned it at all.  This one, $12 purchase at Walmart though stumped the poor cashier.  I stood my ground though and was polite and eventually they relented.

So... my bottom line advice to you is: don't be afraid, merchants want your money.  They are in the business of selling things and taking your money.  If there ever is a question, just be polite, smile big, and stand your ground.  I have never walked out of a store without what I wanted to buy.  Some occasional questioning I can deal with because I do not take it as a personal attack on me.

If you have not done it yet, go for it.

Oh on a slightly related note, while dressed as a girl once, I happened to unfortunately had to hand my ID to a police officer.  I was sure there would be problems.  Nope, not a single one.  He accepted it and said nothing to me.  Actually police are terrified of us accusing them of discrimination and suing them.  This guy was totally cool about it, though I was flipping out inside, I tried to appear cool and collected.  The cop had no issues with it at all.

Love ya, hope my experiences help to make you feel more relaxed about it all.

:)

So What Do These Shoes Mean?

Shoes - Saucony

Once upon a time, somewhere in my research I found that it is generally considered to be true that you are a transvestite if you refuse to wear pants and a transexual if you do.  So what does it mean about me if I choose to wear these shoes?  They certainly are not 3 to 5 inch heels.  Well actually they are not heels at all, they are sneakers.

In fact when I wore these shoes, I also wore pants, see:

Pants - Guess

Top - Guess

Tank - Mossimo

Shoes - Saucony

Sun Glasses - Ralph Lauren

So what does it mean about me?  Well actually it means that I went into San Francisco on this particular day.  Check out this great photo:

Okay, you got me, that photo was not taken in SF, but rather after I was leaving it, from the top of the Berkeley Hills.  That is the Golden Gate in the background and Alcatraz in front of it.

Here is one of me actually at Pier 39, in SF, taking a break from shopping:

I went by myself for a little sightseeing and shopping.  It is kind of odd, but for some reason I really like going to where I grew up while dressed as a girl.  Not sure what is up with that, but many of these places, like SF hold a special place in my memories.  It is almost like a calming effect.  Not that I want to be able to go back and relive my childhood moments as a girl, like I wish I grew up as a girl, because I don't.  I enjoyed growing up as a boy, I think I just kind of wish I could have mixed in more girly times as well.

Okay, enough philosophizing.  I enjoyed my trip to SF, and got some cool earrings I will show you soon.  And FYI, if you choose to go, I highly recommend wearing sneakers and not heels.

Check out this awesome ice cream creation from Fentons in Oakland, CA:

I am hoping that it will end up going to my hips, though I'm not holding my breath! And yes, I was obviously still dressed as a girl when I walked into the packed restaurant and asked for a table for 1.  It was a great lunch, oh I did eat a chicken cesar before the ice cream.

So what does it mean about me that I chose to wear sneakers?  It means I am not a dumb ass!  It means nothing about my gender!  It means sneakers are far more comfy to do lots, and lots, and lots of walking around.  And you know what?  Nobody stopped me and said OMG your a tranny in tennies!  In fact, all anybody did was smile when I smiled at them.  I took it as a good sign when two young girls walked up and sat down next to me on the bench I was sitting on in the photo above, and then another woman came and sat down as well.  Pretty normal stuff, four girls sitting on a bench.  And you know what?  All of us were wearing tennis shoes!

Ha-Ha.

Love you!

Get out more.  Live your life dressed however you want!

My Best Hair Yet

A rather quirky little photo, but possibly my favorite with my new hair.

OMG, I absolutely L O V E my new hair.  What do you think?  Is it as gloriously awesome as I think it is?  Well after the amount of research, planning, and tinkering I am quite pleased with the results.

I ended up deciding on the Zara by Jon Renau.  I took the risk and chose my color and placed my order. A few days later, I fell in love with it the minute I saw it and new that I chose the right blond color.  That is a tough, tough thing.  Blond can be a very personalized color.  But any-who here is a picture with me donning my new hair for the first time.

I know, great picture huh?  Well yeah I ended up being alone on this journey and had to try and take some self shots.  Not too bad though.  BTW - one of my favorite, favorite, favorite things about Wilshire Wigs is that they have a few little private dressing rooms, with full curtains that you can go into and try the wig on in privacy!  The first time I found that out I was super happy.  Ever been in the middle of a wig shop and taken off your wig?  If not, it kind of sucks.

After paying for my hair, I had to wait around a bit for my styling appointment.  This is possibly somewhere around my 10th to 15th wig, but my very first styling.  That is the main reason why this time I did not choose the $700 human hair wig.  I was pretty nervous to allow someone to cut my new hair.  I mean, at least with your own real hair, if the stylist sucks, it will grow back.  A wig though?  Pretty tough to grow that back out!
The stylist was running a little behind and I had a tiny freak out.  I was sure that some mistake had been made and I wasn't going to get my appointment, but of course no, no mistake had been made, I just kind of forgot after not having had my hair done by a professional for at least 20 years, sometimes in the people service industry you need to wait.

The wait was so minor it is irrelevant.  It was especially irrelevant once the stylist came up to me and introduced herself.  We went into a private room, with a door, and I began to explain what was up.  I told her I was a complete newb in regards to styling and all I had was a general idea of what I wanted done.  She listened to me, asked many questions, told me her thoughts, and then got to work.

Oh, her name is Rene, and she is super sweet, professional, and talented.  We chatted throughout the appointment and I got to watch in amazement as what happened was exactly what I was hoping for.  She transformed a great wig, into an awesome wig, personalized just for me!

Can you tell what she did?  I know again not the best pictures, but again self shots so...  She gave me a few more strands of layers around my jawline, which was great.  She also thinned out the wig a bit on the top as to make it not quite so fluffy.  I was a bit unsure of the length but she recommended that I keep it and play up my girly side for a bit and if I get tired of it to come back and she would shorten it.  I am sure she did more as she was at it for quite a bit.  I could tell she knew what she was doing and I asked how long she has been doing it, I want to say she said somewhere over twenty.

In all it took about an hour and it was well worth my time.  It was so worth my time, that honestly I can't see buying a wig off the rack and just wearing it ever again.  Really, really, really, if you have not done this yet, it is a must do!  If you can get to North Hollywood, by all means I can extend my highest recommendation to Rene over at Wilshire Wigs.  But if not, then find someone close to you, because you must do it!

Personally I find it hilarious that this was my first time.  I know of CDs that have done this sort of thing from their very first wig, but for me it was an eye opening revolutionary thing!

Some tips that Rene passed on to me that you may want to know:
- Long hair can get affected by the heat given off by our necks.  This can cause the fibers to do funky things. If you send them your wig they can get it back to normal.  She said you could do this a few times to be able to extend the life of your wig.
- Once the newness of the wig wears off, she recommended that I take a bit of light cream wax, water soluble, and work it into the ends of the hair, in tiny little groups.  She said that it will add to the realism of the hair.
- You can restyle wigs more than once.
- Also through chatting with her, she sounds like she has seen it all and you have NO reason at all to think that she is going to be shocked by what you do.
- She also mentioned that if you can't make it to their location you can send her your wig with you desires and she can style it for you and then send it to you.  That might be easier for some that have a tough time getting out much.

Okay, so lets talk some numbers.  The styling appointment was $75, and well worth the money.  I am so behind the times with styling and such I wasn't even sure if I should tip Rene, but I was so pleased I gave her an extra five dollars.  Sorry if that was a bad tip Rene!  I really do love what you did!

The wig, listed at about $265, but if you have not noticed, I have been including a few links here and there to Wilshire Wigs, and I got the wig for cost!  It was about $153!  Yay for fashion blogging!!

I am a super happy girly!  But I will warn you.  If blending in is your thing, maybe a long blond wig is not the best.  People have sure been taking notice of me lately, but I am taking it as a complement!

For now, I am off travelling, shopping, sight seeing, and on about day #12 of dressing as Nadine, or at least mostly dressing.  Fun.

I am glad I have worked so hard to earn what I have.

Love ya!

Outfit for Friday 7/19/13

 Top - Guess

Tank - Mossimo

Shorts - Celebrity Pink

Flip Flops - What's What by Aerosoles

Today was not as hot as it has been lately, but it was still predicted to be in the high 90s.  Some short shorts were definitely in order.  I find that in some of the more extreme warm days I prefer to wear shorts as opposed to a skirt.  Now maybe this is just me and my personal preference but I find that my thighs will often stick together and get a little rashy-irritated

While out today, Jules and I got our nails done.

I am currently on a longer time off from work and thus can be a little more expressive in my nail choices.  Which is kind of odd huh?  During work I am willing to still paint them but apparently in my own mind certain colors, patterns, methods, are off limits.  Hmm... interesting.  Trapping myself within my own self created walls.  Will I ever stop?

I recently bought a new pair of flip flops from DSW.

Before a few weeks ago, I had never even been into a DSW.  Shocking.  Jules and I found one in San Jose, CA, on one of our many travels.  We spent a few hours in there perusing all of the various cute shoes.  It was not until the back of the store, the super sale section, that we both went kind of nuts.  Well, nuts in trying shoes on.  We both only purchased two pairs.  I had to buy mine, as they we two pairs of shoes that originally sold for about 100 each, that I got for 10 bucks each!  Wow, what a bargain!  Had to have them.  I will show you those eventually.  For now, all you get are the flip flops I bought on my second trip to a DSW.

Also, some of you may remember that I have a nickel allergy.  This prevents me from wearing most of the cool jewelry that I find.  But recently Jules and I did some shopping at Dress Barn.  While in there I found a pair of earring that said they are nickle free.

I liked that they said "nickel free" and not just "sensitive skin safe."  I have purchased many pairs of earrings from Target that have said they are "sensitive skin safe" and Jules has inherited many pairs of earrings because after a few hours I find that I can not wear them.  Oh well.  These from Dress Barn felt fine, though they are quite heavy.

Other interesting tidbits:
- I ordered The Zara by Jon Renau, through Wilshire Wigs.  I was informed yesterday that the wig has come in and I called and made an appointment for a cut and styling advice when I pick it up this coming week.  OMG  I am so excited!!!
- Jules and I had an amazing weekend with Vivian and Edward recently that I must tell you about :)
- I have dressed more girl than less for the last 7 days.  I suppose I might be seeing how long I can go.  I am getting a little bugged about it.  Which is nice as I am so often bugged only about it the other way around.


Love Ya!

Love Yourself!