Hello ladies. I haven't been on here much lately because of finals and other end-of-the-semester projects. I finished up the semester last Wednesday though, and since then I've been cleaning out my closet. After working at it for 5 months I've finally finished. Angie's posts on the topic have helped me so much. I now have a huge bin of clothes to donate and quite the pile of things to get altered. I also have a few questionable items to ask about on here, but that's another story for another forum discussion.

Now that I know what is lacking and/or needs updating in my wardrobe, I've started shopping. Saturday was dedicated to going to the mall and finding several things on my list. Unfortunately, the day didn't go quite as planned. I didn't get out of the house until afternoon, stoped at JCPenney Outlet on the way to the mall (and looked at clothes and furniture) and only spent about 2 hours shopping at a mall I could spend all day at. So this is shopping trip #1 for me; I plan to go back again soon to look at other stores and hopefully pick up several of the items I missed. Here is my news for now, for anyone who's interested.

At JCPenney Outlet I got a fun pink tunic to wear with jeans (or clam-diggers when I have some). It was only $10 and fits nicely even though it wasn't what I was looking for.

At the mall, I stopped at American Eagle and found a cute swim suit. Express didn't have any fabulous waist-emphasizing Tanya-like tops, which is the main thing I'm searching for at the moment. But I found a lovely high waisted black skirt that I can wear either with a blousy top tucked in or a regular top untucked. I was pleased with that purchase despite the fact that the skirt is dry clean only, which is something I try to avoid.

Banana Republic, Britches, New York and Co., and XXI had absolutely nothing on my list. I was particularly overwhelmed by XXI. Speaking of which, is that the same as Forever 21? The merchandise certainly seemed similar. In general stores seem to have gone overboard with the high-waisted trend on skirts, and it's difficult to find anything else except skirts with massive gathers or pleats that overwhelm me at 5'2". I wanted one high-waisted pencil skirt, but now that I have it, I want my other skirts to be in different styles, which seem hard to find at the moment.

I also stopped at Sephora and tried out the tinted moisturizer that was recommended to me moths ago on a topic here. Sadly, it didn't give me nearly enough coverage.

That's my long report from Saturday. Hopefully, I'll have more and better news soon. I'm on the lookout for waist-emphasizing tops, a few updated skirts (including a dark denim pencil skirt), red patent heels, and dark wash jeans that I can wear with heels. The mall I visited on Saturday is not one I frequent, but I will probably be going back several times in the next few weeks. It has 5 department stores (two Dillards, Macy's, JCPenney, and Nordstrom) and a ton of other stores, so there is plenty to look at. I just have to keep at it. Thank you everyone for the encouragement on my style journey.