Fat Girl, Skinny City: It's that time of the season

Fat Girl, Skinny City: Shop Shop Shoparoo

Sorry about missing last week but I've been shopping. It's a sorry excuse for zoning out on everything except shopping but I made a promise to myself that I would no longer spend my days in out of date goucho pants and a jean jacket (seriously).

Now that lady on Oprah, the one always going on and on about how buying things won't make you happy, paying off debt will make you happy, well she can bite me because shopping actually does make me happy. There is nothing like trying on a pair of jeans that hug in just the right places (butt and upper thighs, give in the stomach) and there is also nothing like the anticipation of wearing that perfect new shirt with those perfect new pair of shoes. It's enough not to make a girl change two or three times a day (that would be the laundry thing, the laundry thing keeps me from changing two or three times a day).

Shopping in San Diego is a real adventure. Wait, I'm sure you're wondering why I'm shopping for me as it is that time of year where we should all be shopping for our loved ones so that we can wrap up those things we buy and give it to them at a family gathering, well, it's because I got the itch and once I scratched there was no going back (erase that, erase it now! Gross!).

But yes, Shopping in San Diego is a real adventure, the malls are grand and out doors and the people are, thin and wear short skirts all year round. I wonder (as I sit here) why it is that the stores which carry "plus size clothes" are separated from those stores that carry "skinny girl clothes". Why is it that you can only be forever 21 if you are also forever below a size 12? Don't get me wrong, there are a few stores I love for their fun clothes (Torrid, Citi Wear, Lane Bryant sometimes, but mostly not really any more) but I too want to buy cheaply made yet possibly fashionable if disguised well clothing for going out (I'm Forever 21!).

Maybe the grass is always greener.

So I've been shopping and from my spoils I can give you this information:

Torrid is/was having a great clearance sale both online and in store. I got this dress and it fits snuggly but in all the right places. Plus it's a lot cuter in person then in the picture. I like her bracelets now that I look at them, adding it to my list!

I'd say Torrid makes the best dresses, those kind of dresses you wear on a fun day out with friends or to breakfast. Plus since the dresses that are on sale right now are those they consider "summer" and we all know how that works in San Diego.

As far as online shopping goes I want to play up Alloy, because they are a "fun clothing" site that mixes Misses WITH Plus Sizes, therefore you can get those things that you might not get other places. Their dresses are cute (they don't offer all of them in plus sizes, but most), but the sizes run a little small.

I'll be off ordering and trying on my new orange (yes orange) blouse.

Lori's Fashion Reaction: Booties are in. Metallics are...not.

Lori (of Two Small Town Girls fame, you know back when we lived together in San Diego and wrote all about our crazy San Diego adventures) and I email back and forth during the day to talk about really important things, like what kind of candy we're going to get for Halloween, or if we think a detox diet is a good idea. Call her a "girl next door" if you like, but she's also in line to be my life guru. She's my go to girl for all things life related, which includes the oh so life and death question: to bootie or not to bootie.

Witness this: booties are everywhere this season (including Jessica Simpson's shoe collection, and we all know Jessica Simpson knows what's going ON). Lori gives her unfiltered fashion reaction (a quick two second immediate response) to all things bootie.

The expensive bootie: from Nordstrom



Lori's FASHION REACTION: I actually like them. But let me tell you why. They are a good brand and are probably pretty comfortable for heels; the heel is not too high; I love suede anything pretty much; and the neutral color makes up for the slightly quirky style. These are a go.



The cheap bootie: from Alloy.com



Lori's FASHION REACTION: Although the grey is nice, the metallic just doesn't do it for me. Are we really going back to the 80s? Did they run out of good ideas that fast? Unlike the expensive version, they aren't that versatile. They are a no.


The artisitc bootie: from Macys.com



Lori's FASHION REACTION: Whoa! That's a whoa. Very Cyndi Lauper-esque. They're on sale though...



Verdict: You can bootie, if you bootie right.