A quick update.

First I just want to thank everyone for their incredible responses to the previous two posts! I really appreciated everyone's willingness to share their own hair removal horror stories in the comments on Almost one year ago... and I'm glad everyone enjoyed the humor in A Public Service Announcement: Crossdressers and Halloween. So check out those posts if you haven't already. I really enjoyed writing them and putting them together, and I have to thank my awesome wife for her help taking the pictures and reading drafts, and another friend who also helped with the editing.

This week has been crazy busy for us, and in addition to Halloween parties, and getting ready for Halloween parties, we have had some last minute non-Halloween events added to our social calendar too. And of course, you know, our jobs were still in the mix too. So this has put me behind on reading and commenting on blogs, but I fully intend to catch up, and I just wanted to say why I've been a bit absent from blogs this week! Our last party is tomorrow, and I hope to get a write-up of all the excitement plus pictures done either late Sunday or sometime on Monday.

Halloween has turned into a big deal for me because its partially become a holiday about legitimizing playing dress up. Having this blog has made it even more fun than last year for me as well. The end result is that I can go outside and not get asked a lot of questions. Er, that's not exactly true, I do get asked questions, but most of them have been pretty good natured. But I did want to share this article a friend saw a few days ago and forwarded to me: Can a boy be a princess for Halloween? Its actually a bit personal, because it rhymes with some of my own experiences. I asked my parents if I could go as a female cartoon character for Halloween once (I was closer to 10, although I don't remember exactly what age I was...). Unlike the kids parents, mine said no, and I didn't bring it up again. I picked another costume easily enough, but it did hurt. And their reasoning was similar to the some of the worries those parents expressed: They felt I would get picked on even more than normal (I was most often on the receiving end of bullying growing up already...). I think that was actually the last Halloween I went trick or treating though. My other costume wasn't a "success". The few costumes I've pulled together in adulthood haven't been a "success" either. Actually, the first costume I've felt good about since was my costume last year.

To this day, my parents still don't know about my interests expressed on this blog, and I intend to keep it that way. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't go well, and I don't want to find out. That's also why I don't want to say what character I wanted to go as, so please don't ask about that. And hey, if I ever find a suitable version of that costume (and I haven't!), I promise you I will be wearing it the next Halloween, and if I'm still doing this blog, I will post it here!

One last point. Several readers have mentioned wanting to hear from my wife. My wife is actively involved in this blog, and usually reads all the comments and posts in addition to taking the pictures, and proofreading drafts. This is one of our "together" activities as a couple, even if I'm often the more enthusiastic participant. I have asked her about doing a post on the blog, and its something I think she is willing to do, but it will have to wait at least a few weeks due to real life.

Almost one year ago...

• Costume: Torrid
• Knee High Tights: Torrid
• Pumps: Torrid

Last year, we were invited to a Halloween party some friends were hosting, and I finally took the opportunity to explain to my friends my interest in crossdressing. These were not the very first friends I had told, but they were among the first. I decided I was going to take advantage of that Halloween party to go out and enjoy myself and properly dress up. Prior to that party I had never worn makeup, and never allowed any pictures to be taken of me while I was dressed up. And I hadn't really been outside properly either. It was a night of many firsts for me and my wife, and ultimately it was a lot of fun, and I realized how awesome some of my friends really are. But it almost didn't happen. And so today, I wanted to tell that story. With time, distance, and a happy ending it's lot easier to laugh at now.

I've heard it said that good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. This post is about bad judgment.

We decided that for my costume, we would try to do the best possible job we could, and that included makeup. Now, I just want to add that at this point, I had never worn makeup before, and while I do wear it on occasion now, my wife usually does my makeup for me (although I am learning to do my own makeup), and it's not my favorite aspect of dressing up. But I have to say, I love what it can do for my pictures. Oh... right... I crop them all before posting, er, so everyone will just have to trust me on this one. ;) Anyway, so the single biggest "problem" I have with makeup is actually one that I suspect is less common: Facial hair. A 5 o'clock shadow is not usually the effect I'm going for, whether I'm dressed in a masculine or feminine manner, but it's definitely more frustrating for some of my feminine outfits. I have no ill will toward facial hair or body hair in general, on anyone, I just have a preference for less of it on me at times.

Enter bad judgment. Having previously experimented with waxing one leg (Yes, one leg. We ran out of strips, and I ended up shaving the other leg for two months to "even" things out...), I decided that waxing my face would be a brilliant idea.

Now, some part of my brain did have some concerns with this plan. The chief concern was that my facial hair wouldn't be long enough. So I started growing a beard just before Halloween to solve that problem. I also had visions of waxing gone awry and creating an ill placed, and very unfortunate bald spot on my head. And so the day before the party came, and we were in the bathroom, and my wife had applied the wax and placed the first strip on my face, and pulled... (Frankly, I think my wife enjoys this part too much...)

If our neighbors heard anything, they never said anything to us. I think the worst though, was that not a single hair came out. Not one. While the pain was unpleasant, Everything Was Still Okay. I had a Plan B.

Enter more bad judgment. It was now the next morning, I had already cut my leg shaving and I was starting to panic about the timing and how things were going. After a quick trip to the store, we bought a bottle of Nair. After reading and rereading the directions several times, I applied it to my face.

About 10 minutes later, I was washing it off. My face was burning. A lot. Did I mention the smell? Also the burning?

In addition to the "5 o'clock shadow", my face was now bright red and in intense pain. I was hiding in the bathroom, crying in the bathtub, telling my wife to call our friends and say we weren't coming. My wife called our friends, and after passing the phone around and talking about it all, our friends were pretty understanding about it all and had some suggestions and reassurances. So after the phone call and some time to calm down, we resumed getting ready.

I finally broke down and shaved my face with a razor. I have had razor burn before, but this was a whole other level of burn. This was the most unpleasant shave I have ever had. I didn't think shaving could go so wrong. But it was finally done, and I was relatively clean shaven and very red faced (but hey, as everyone told me that day, "that's what makeup is for..."). Also, did I mention the burning? Okay. I just wanted to make sure.

We ended up going to the party and having a great time, and I was even okay with several people taking pictures of me and my wife in our costumes. (Uh, now about tagging them on Facebook... that's a different matter...)

Since then, I have learned more about how to cover a 5 o'clock shadow, and hopefully my makeup this year will be the best it has ever been. (Again thanks to my wife's abilities, certainly not my own...) And there will be lots of pictures, and I will post about everything we do later this week. But for today, I thought everyone would enjoy seeing last year's costume, my first feminine costume, and even the first pictures of me wearing women's clothing ever, and have a good laugh at my story of bad judgment. This year, I plan on making ALL NEW mistakes. :)

A Public Service Announcement: Crossdressers and Halloween

In this edition of our award winning documentary series on Halloween, we will be discussing the elusive straight male crossdresser in his natural habitat. This is one of our many, many documentaries on Halloween, so please take a moment to consider checking out some of our other award nominated productions, Vampires: Traditional or Sparkly, a field guide for the novice, A Dog Whisperer's Guide to Housebreaking your Werewolf Roommate, A plea for brains: Am I a Zombie or just drunk? Does it even matter?. And don't forget our famous expose, Rainbow Pooping Unicorns and Skittles: An Inconvenient Truth.

Now, as many people are aware Halloween is a time when the creatures of myths and legends take to the streets. Most of them are harmless and merely taking the opportunity to socialize the one time of year no will notice. In this guide, we will be discussing the many types of straight male crossdressers that might be encountered on Halloween. As you will see, the straight male crossdresser can often be found hiding where you least expect.

Types of Straight Male Crossdressers

The Superhero - Let's face it, this crossdresser is subtle and suave. Going as the manliest of manly costumes... that requires tights? His secret is safe, since no one will question Superman, but he has subtly and deftly taken the opportunity to combine his interest in women's clothing with a costume no one will question.

The Gambler - This type of crossdresser takes comfort in the well worn genre/plot trope of the bet-gone-wrong. Stories of bets or actual elaborate bets will be concocted by this crossdresser to be lost, granting him the cover of plausible deniability. And since he is a sporting chap, he will be "forced" to indulge in crossdressing. Hey, he lost the bet, its only "fair" that he pay up.

The Comedian - This crossdresser may be quite skilled in the application of makeup and the selection of clothing, but for the sake of Halloween, attires himself in the "dude in a dress" stereotype and does a horrible job, with clownish makeup, ill-fitting clothes, and badly placed balloon cleavage. After all, he's so bad at it, he couldn't possibly enjoy it, and hey, its all for the gag, right? Right? RIGHT?

The Sexist Poser - Taking his cue from Briar Rabbit, this crossdresser's sexist statements about women's clothing is really a facade. It's his way of saying "don't through me in the briar patch". He will continue to push his unwitting female collaborators until he succeeds in creating a "It takes a real man to wear a skirt" moment, in which his taunting and snarky comments give rise to the challenge that he don women's clothing to "prove his manhood".

Rocky - Horror Picture Show of course. This crossdresser uses the cult popularity of this movie to crossdress in the manner of its hero, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, and thus disguise his true intent. One must be careful however, since this category overlaps with Space Aliens who are visiting from Transsexual, Transylvania. Please see our documentary on extraterrestrial, Long Distance Dialing Plans and the Andromeda Galaxy, for more details.

The Winner - This crossdresser takes no prisoners for Halloween and just goes out in his finest feminine fashion. This crossdresser will frequently seek out costume contests, as the prize money and competitive aspect provide cover for his fitted clothes, nicely done hair, and expert makeup. However, a quick calculation of the costume cost will frequently reveal that the prize money is a tiny fraction of the expenses he has incurred. If challenged, this crossdresser may resort to vague speeches about a "job well done", and "anything worth doing is worth doing right" and wander off muttering a litany of excuses until he can find conversants who are less inquisitive about his attire.

Possibly Confused for a Crossdresser

Bank Robbers - Despite their predilection for using pantyhose as a mask or even donning drag to confuse the hidden cameras, bank robbers are not known, in general, to enjoy crossdressing anymore than they are likely to be former heads of state.

Drag Queens - Drag queens are, at their core, performance artists, and predominantly homosexual. While the occasional straight drag queen, and even the ever elusive female drag queen are known to be encountered, drag queens are very likely providing you with a creative form of entertainment, celebrity impersonation, and poking good natured fun at social norms of gendered behavior.

Eighties Hair Metal Bands - These are not crossdressers. Currently, they are an unclassified specimen, which after a rise to prominence in the eighties and sudden mass extinction event have recently seen a recurrent rise in their numbers. This specimen is also known to destroy hotel rooms. Just enjoy their music and don't ask too many questions and everything should be fine.

Play it again, again.

• Top: Maurices (previously)
• Blazer: Maurices (previously)
• Pants: Torrid (previously)
• Pumps: Payless (previously)
• Bracelet: Torrid (previously)

So this marks the end of this weeks remix challenge, and this outfit is also a complete remix of previously worn pieces. Its certainly been fun to force myself to remix pieces. However, I do want to continue to go through everything in my closet by posting it on the blog, and just cut back on my shopping in general. This blog has helped me feel less of a need to shop, and I really enjoy sharing my love of fashion with everyone.

On yesterday's post, Lesa of Always Summer left a question: Hey, I have a question from my daughter (she's 15 and really just wondering (please don't get offended) She said" Mom, his clothes are so cool, does his wife get to wear them too?" First, I love answering questions, and I don't get offended easily at all. Questions are always welcome, and I will do my best to answer them. I'm really flattered that your daughter thinks my clothes are cool. My wife and I are very differently sized, so unfortunately, my clothes don't fit her, and hers don't fit me. It would definitely help on closet space if we could though, and it would make it a lot easier for me to rationalize buying more shoes if we wore the same shoe size. We do share on some accessories though, mostly things like purses that aren't really sized. I have some more I could say on this topic so I may write a longer post on this topic in the future. Although with all the well dressed style bloggers out there, I think it would be interesting to hear what others have to say. Does anyone have someone they share clothes and shoes with? What are your feelings on sharing clothes and shoes?

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am really looking forward to seeing what other style bloggers do for Halloween next week, and I'm pretty excited about our own plans here. And of course today's pictures were taken by my fabulous wife.

Remixed.

• Top: Maurices (previously)
• Cardigan: Old Navy (previously)
• Pants: Torrid (previously)
• Pumps: Isaac Mizrahi for Target (previously)

I'm pretty sure this is the first outfit I have worn on this blog that is completely remixed, and I am slightly embarrassed to realize how many outfit posts there are prior to this one. *sigh*. Also this top really is more of a green, but it always seems to photograph more of a blue. In other news, the last pieces of my halloween costume arrived today, so yay! Yesterday evening I got my order of tights from We Love Colors, which I ordered after reading a review by Louise of the awesome blog Coffee and a Cardigan, one part of that order was Halloween related, but the rest was because how awesome is a place that stocks 51 colors of tights in every size? And of course today's pictures were taken by my beautiful wife!

Start wearing purple.

• Top: Maurices
• Blazer: Maurices (previously)
• Pants: Maurices (previously)
• Bracelet: Torrid (previously)
• Pumps: Payless

I'm a little late with my post today, and for that, I apologize. Busy days will get you every time, and I'm keeping it short to not delay the post any longer. Today's outfit is still not a 100% remix, but tomorrow's outfit will be, I think, probably. I think the next time I do a remix challenge I need to include a dress or at least a skirt. I avoided a dress this time, because I was trying to stop myself from picking a pair of shoes for every day of the challenge, and a dress seemed like a way to get in an extra pair of shoes. Oh, I also have to add that Ashley, of the awesome blog Ashley Getting Dressed, posted an outfit yesterday inspired by one of my previous outfits. How cool is that? :) And of course, today's pictures were taken by my lovely wife!

Bold black and brown.

• Top: Maurices
• Cardigan: Old Navy
• Belt: Torrid (previously)
• Pants: Maurices (previously)
• Pumps: Isaac Mizrahi for Target

Since I already had my outfits picked out for the week, I am still remixing, and I will be remixing the first week of November again, since that is when Meli22 has rescheduled her challenge. Of course, this isn't a remix yet, since several of these pieces are new to the blog, but they will be by the end of the week! I really enjoy pairing brown and black, but I'm not always convinced they work, this outfit might be on the other side of the line, and I also feel like I might have gone overboard with the belt in this one, but overall, I'm pretty happy with the outfit. I also really like these pumps, and other than my own attempt to go through most of my shoe collection, I would wear them more often. They are from Isaac Mizrahi's collaboration with Target a couple of years ago. I have several other pairs from this collection too, and I love them all, and the best part is that they usually had my size in this line too, which Target's other brands usually don't.

In other news, it looks like almost everything is taken care of for Halloween. Maybe all the anticipation and build up on my part will just make things anticlimactic once it actually gets here. We also recently moved so we have no idea if we will get any trick-or-treaters here either. I have several plans made for next week, now I just hope they all work out. And of course, today's pictures were taken by my adorable wife!

New camera!

• Top: Maurices
• Blazer: Maurices (previously)
• Pants: Maurices
• Pumps: Torrid (previously)
• Necklace: Maurices (previously)
• Bracelet: Torrid (previously)

First, I just want to say, new camera! After an even more unexpected than normal trip to Best Buy, and everyone's advice, we are now the proud owners of a new Canon PowerShot SX130 IS. My wife took an unplanned day off on Friday. So after a late morning we decided to take a trip to the nearest city, and check out the cameras. In addition to the camera, we also took the opportunity this weekend to take care of a significant portion of our Halloween costume shopping. Actually, all of its taken care, but there are a couple of things that had to be ordered, so hopefully they will get here in time. I would love to tell everyone what our costumes are... but that would spoil the fun right?

This week, I'm also joining Meli22 in a Wardrobe Challenge. In the last shot you can see my 10 pieces of clothing and shoes, and 5 accessories for the week. Unfortunately, both the top and shoes in this outfit seem to shift colors when photographed, the top is greener and the pumps are more purple than they appear. I ended up choosing 3 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of pants, 3 tops, a cardigan, and a blazer. For my accessories I have 3 belts, and a bracelet and a necklace. I thought about including a skirt or a dress, but 10 items counting shoes is... less than I thought it would be. On the other hand, the outfits I'll be making are new to me, and some of these pieces have not been on the blog before, so it should be a fun week.

And of course, my awesome wife took today's pictures on a brand new camera.

Friday link roundup.

Its Friday, and I want to have a post, but between a crazy schedule and a flaky camera, it won't be an outfit post! But that's okay, it just means I get to do something different! And now I can't hide behind hiding my face from the camera. Er, what?... Uh, moving on. I want to thank everyone who shared their thoughts on cameras! I mean, who better to ask than people who take a lot of pictures of their outfits for blogs, right? My old camera was from the Canon PowerShot line, and its good to hear that a lot of people also good luck with the line, and so I will probably be going with an updated PowerShot model. And I just wanted to say something about cameras and picture quality. I love to see all the creativity in picture taking with style bloggers! I think its really cool that even the cheapest camera can be used to make art and share self expression. For me, its not about picture quality anymore than its about where you shop! Its can be a lot of fun to have a nice camera, but if you gave me a DSLR tomorrow, I wouldn't know what to do with it(okay, I would, I would put it in point and shoot mode! :) ), and really, I think the hard part in taking a good picture is deciding what to put in the picture and what to leave out. And when in doubt, just take a lot of pictures, one of them is bound to be good eventually! See, its thinking like this that explains why I'm not a professional photographer (oh wait, my blog is supposed to anonymous... or am I? Wait... my wife takes all my pictures... okay, someone in this house is probably not a pro photographer... or are they?). I guess my point is that I don't need a good camera, its just fun to have one, and we're lucky enough to be able to replace the one we have.

Hah, I'm not done yet! A lot of other bloggers (like the really awesome Lisa of respect the shoes) post link roundups from time to time, and since I have been sitting on a growing collection of links I found interesting and relevant.

Gender Labels and Clothing

• Switcharoo(via Feministing) - I addition to being really cool, it took me a minute to realize this was not photoshopped.
• What I Wore posted some inspiration for Halloween costumes, and in particular I found her interpretation of George Washington to be an interesting example of how what counts as masculine attire has changed over the times. Also, her interpretation of Karl Lagerfeld is equally interesting.
• She's Got Balls: 12 Creative Women Get in Touch With Their Masculine Side(via Feministing) - This is a really fun slideshow with an interesting range of female celebrities in masculine looks.
• This blog post has an interesting discussion about the site The Art of Manliness, which prompted an enterprising individual to create a website that simply gender-swaps most of the nouns from The Art of Manliness website to create The Art of Womanliness, and the resulting lack of difference makes some interesting food for thought about gender roles. I know there are a lot of diverse thoughts on that sort of thing, so I thought it would be cool to share and hear other people's thoughts?

General Style

• Scarfing it down which links to Tying scarves with the Angie knot, and then a comment shares another technique.
• How to pull off a bow tie(via A Pretty Penny - Links a la Mode)
• How to Make Heels Bearable - I enjoy wearing high heels, but I also care about protecting my feet and not damaging them, and so I really enjoyed this discussion about the practicalities of wearing heels. I have some friends who have plantar fasciitis, and its something to be avoided.

On Monday, I hope to be back with a working camera and I will be participating in a Wardrobe Capsule Challenge that the wonderful Meli from The Daily Insanity of a Fashion Addict has decided to do. I hope everyone has a great weekend, and since there were no pictures today, I will just thank my amazing wife for being amazing.

Fun with cameras.

• Top: Maurices
• Cardigan: Old Navy (previously)
• Skinny Jeans: Z. Cavaricci via Torrid (previously)
• Red Flats: Payless (same style, different color)
• Bracelet: Torrid

The unexpected surprise in this post is that my camera flaked out yesterday (and by flaked out, I mean the last picture it took is the one not like the others), so we decided to experiment with taking the rest of the pictures with my cell phone camera. I turned my old camera on this morning, and it seemed to be working again, but since the camera is getting some age on it, I figure it's time to look for a replacement. We probably can't afford a DSLR (And we would have to learn how to use it anyway...), especially since we want to replace it this weekend, so we'll probably be looking for a "nice" point-and-shoot model. And of course, thoughts on cameras are completely welcome in the comments. :)

The top in today's post does have some peach in the print (which you probably can't see), but I'm not sure if that counts as pink so I decided to "fall off the wagon" and not claim this as part of Melissa's Blogging for Breast Cancer aWEARness challenge. Also, I don't normally wear flats with skinny jeans, but I wanted to give it a try, because I think it's a really good look on other people. I also feel like I was inspired at least a little by Ashley of Ashley Getting Dressed. Oh, and while the pictures weren't the best, I actually wore this for most of the day yesterday, including a quick trip through the drive thru with my wife for our dinner (she was driving, for the record). And of course, today's pictures were taken by my fabulous wife.

BBCA 8: Variations on a cardigan.

• Top: Maurices
• Cardigan: Old Navy (previously)
• Scarf: Maurices (previously)
• Necklace: Maurices
• Skirt: Maurices
• Boots: Rack Room

This outfit is part of Melissa's Blogging for Breast Cancer aWEARness challenge. First, I want to say thank you for all the comments on yesterday's post! I have some thoughts for a short follow-up post, and I really enjoyed hearing everyone's thoughts on the subject. Every day I am continually amazed at how awesome style bloggers are, and how wonderful everyone who leaves a comment here really is! But today, I will be away from the computer for a while, so this post is going to be short and quick. It turns out a pink cardigan is a great way to cheat remix a lot of outfits for the challenge. For instance, this is the third outfit I have paired this cardigan with in less than a week. I think I have some more pink hiding in the closet, so I will definitely see what I can find for tomorrow. I'll also just go ahead and say I'm not 100% about how this outfit turned out, so I would definitely appreciate any feedback. And while I really like how this pair of boots look, they aren't my most comfortable pair to walk in, and I normally don't have trouble with heels this height or thinness, so they are in my "remix again to see what everyone thinks and maybe replace them" pile. And of course my beautiful wife took today's pictures.

BBCA 7: Retail therapy.

• Top: Torrid (previously)
• Cami: Maurices
• Vest: Maurices (previously)
• Skirt: Target
• Pumps: Payless

This outfit is part of Melissa's Blogging for Breast Cancer aWEARness challenge. I know I only said I would do it for a week, but I had a little more pink than I thought, so I figured I would just keep on going a bit longer. This outfit is actually from a couple of weeks ago, but I never posted it. And yes, its with the same vest and button down as another recent post. I told everyone they would be seeing it again soon. :)

Last week Lori from the awesome blog lorispeak made a comment that inspired this post: wow. I was wondering if you remixed at all! I'm amazed at how many clothes (and especially awesome shoes) you have! I do have to say, it's really fun to remix and see who you can make items take on a totally different feel. I like that you remixed these shoes into this outfit. It'd be a pity not to show them more than once! :)

Walmart is open 24 hours a day. I know this because for many years I experienced intense shame over my interest, and it was the only place I felt I could shop. I would wait until the quiet hours of the night and go out and "browse" the sections next to the women's clothing until I could work up the courage to go look at clothes. If no one was around, all the better. I did not know my size and I was way too timid to ask to try anything on. I would repeat the waiting near the cash registers until lines were short or empty, and while the cashier ringed me up, I couldn't look anyone in the eyes, and I just hoped I no one would get in line behind me. One of the last times I ever did this, a man started following me around, so I left the store, only to get confronted in the parking lot. The man was a plain clothes store security person who was convinced I was shoplifting. I managed to convince him I hadn't taken anything, but it was a seriously unnerving experience.

Of course, in that period of my life, even when I bought things, I would only keep them a few days. During this period, the shame and guilt would pile on, and I would reach the breaking point, and too ashamed to dare make a return, I would throw away my purchases. Luckily, many of them were from Walmart, and at least they were cheap. Later on, I would discover this is a pretty common problem among people who crossdress.

Thankfully, I'm past a lot of that shame. I now have a closet overflowing with shoes and clothes, and I haven't thrown anything away in 3-4 years, and I have no plans to do that again. But during this period, I kept asking myself the question, "Why do I have these clothes?" I don't think I'm doing anything wrong, but these are not my "work" clothes, and these aren't my "going out with friends" clothes. Most of the time I spend wearing clothes, I'm wearing them for other people. I finally realized that these clothes are for when I dress for myself. Unfortunately, getting dressed to the nines to watch TV with my wife is not the height of fulfillment. Even worse, now that its "okay" for me to shop, I've started shopping a lot more. I have joked at times that I'm "making up for lost time". And there is possibly some truth to that, I didn't really get to enjoy shopping or dressing for myself until 4 years ago. I had never owned a dress until 4 years, I had never even owned a pair of heels that actually fit.

This post is about shopping, but its impossible for me to talk about shopping without talking about my background. I was shopping too much, but that was really a minor problem. I dress for myself, but I didn't have many people to share that passion with or opportunities to use my clothes, and so I guess I found myself "doubling down" on shopping for more cute stuff. So while I have not gone on a shopping ban, one reason I started this blog was so that I could share the clothes and shoes I already have. Here, while I'm not exactly dressing for other people, I am sharing a creative outlet in clothing with other people. But this blog has actually helped me shop less. Instead of retail therapy, I guess I have blog therapy now. Unfortunately, it did take a while for me to learn my size and how to dress, and what I actually liked and how to talk about it. I'm still learning. So while I love the idea of remixing, one goal I decided early on was that I would force myself to go through all of my shoes and all the clothes in my closet before letting myself do a lot more shopping. In the process, I thought I might be able ask any readers for their thoughts if I was thinking about getting rid of something.

Unfortunately, this is one part philosophizing and one part consumerism, but I certainly don't want to the promote the idea that anyone needs to shop or not, and where to shop, or not. My wife and I are lucky in that we can afford this indulgence on my part, and one of the things I love most about sharing with other bloggers is the diverse backgrounds they come from, and their unique experience and the context in which they live.

So when it comes to actually shopping in stores, I'm doing better. I no longer hide from the clerks, although I am always with my wife. I think a couple of the clerks think I am the most understanding husband ever. Although they occasionally express surprise at the sizes we buy. Unfortunately, since a few stores only cater to women, I don't always get to try stuff on in the store. Although I did have a wonderful experience at a Nine West store once. The clerk was not only extremely helpful, but explained that she has helped plenty of male customers shopping for themselves (I guess Eddie Izzard was right, "there are more of us than you know"). At the end of the day though, most of my shopping is done online.

I hope this was interesting! And I will be remixing for Meli's Wardrobe capsule challenge next week, and I will be doing some remixing off and on, because I always want to make a great outfit! And I will still be shopping, but I also want to eventually put all my clothes on this blog too! Dressing for yourself gets lonely too, and this is something I used to be ashamed of, but now I enjoy and I enjoy sharing it. And I guess one big part of this blog really is about self acceptance. I had a reader suggest that, and I have realized how true that is. Thanks for reading!

I really enjoy writing "question and answer" posts, so always feel free to ask questions in the comments! I also have to thank my wife and another good friend for the feedback and proofreading on today's post. And of course, today's pictures were taken by my amazing wife!

BBCA 6: Ticket to Ride

• Dress: Maurices
• Cardigan: Old Navy (previously)
• Belt: Torrid (previously)
• Tights: JC Penney
• Pumps: Payless

This outfit is part of Melissa's Blogging for Breast Cancer aWEARness challenge. I've had this dress in my closet for a while, and it was one that I knew I had to have as soon as I laid eyes on it, we hadn't even entered the store, but my wife knew it too, and didn't even protest. I remembered it last week, and thought that it would be perfect for the challenge. In addition to the trim, the dress is lined in pink as well. On Tuesday, after driving around for a while, we finally found a secluded spot on the railroad tracks to get these pictures. I will also admit that I cheated and wore tennis shoes to get out there, (also, you know, to make a quick escape from anyone else who thinks secluded places on the railroad tracks are a great place to hang out...). Since going outside is a special occasion for me, we had a lot of great pictures, and its Friday, I posted seven pictures because I just couldn't cut it down more. I know, I know, I shouldn't apologize for it, but I also know that less is sometimes more!

And I'm running late again today. At least its Friday. Also, I love answering questions from the comments, so definitely feel free to ask, and I think I'm going to have a post on shopping for Monday inspired by a comment Lori made a few days ago, so if you have some questions about that, definitely ask away! Have a great weekend everyone! And of course, my absolutely wonderful and lovely wife took today's pictures!

BBCA 5: Neutrals and Pink.

• Tank: Maurices
• Shrug: Maurices
• Skirt: Maurices
• Belt: Torrid (previously)
• Socks: Target (previously)
• Pumps: Payless

This outfit is part of Melissa's Blogging for Breast Cancer aWEARness challenge. I am seriously running behind on everything today, admittedly, a power outage this morning didn't help. And while I would have loved to write something more interesting, instead I'm writing that I wanted to write something more interesting just so I can get this posted. I did decide that I enjoyed the socks with heels look after trying it once before, so I thought I would try it again for this outfit. I definitely need to get some more socks, but the few times I've been out shopping lately I didn't see anything inspiring. Tomorrow will hopefully be a lot better! And of course, today's pictures were taken by wonderful wife!