Assignment #1: The search for the little black (going out) dress

Before I get into this first assignment, there's a bit more you should know about me. I love shopping. No, I really, REALLY love shopping. But mostly, I love shopping for anyone other than myself. Some of my favorite outtings involve shopping with Cait (my sister) for a head to toe look for homecoming or a sweet sixteen party, or heading out with my sister-in-law, Staci or my mom when they have a party coming up and don't know what to wear, or even shopping for a cool new look for my nephews, Aidan & Jackson. What I don't get as excited about is shopping for myself. This probably has something to do with not liking how things fit or look, or finding it hard to spend money on myself when it's much more fun to spoil the people I love :) Anyway, one of my good friends, Chelsea, is getting married soon, and for her bachelorette party we are all wearing black dresses. Sounds easy enough, right? I have a few black dresses, but they are either too dressy or too casual for this night out on the town. So, I set out to the mall to try and find the perfect dress for this occassion.

And that's as far as I got on this assignment today.

I didn't even look in ONE store for a black dress. Instead, as soon as I got to the mall, I went straight to the kids clothing stores to do a little shopping for a very special baby girl. My good friends, Lauren & Tim, just welcomed their daughter, Madison, into the world on Tuesday. They chose to not find out the sex of the baby beforehand (which is definitely the way to go in my opinion--too few surpises in life, you might as well have fun with this one!), so lil' Maddie has a lot of yellow and green outfits waiting for her at home. While they are all adorable, I think every girl needs a little pink in her life!! So once again my desire to shop for someone other than myself took over this trip.

So how did I make out? Here's a look at what Madison is going to be sporting this summer:

Apparently I was feeling the animal print, but also got a couple things that I would call "understated girly." The top two pieces are a dress, which has lots of volume, and a white & gold jumpsuit which is super-cute and should be great for summer. The brown & pink onesies can both be worn with the brown zebra skirt, and the last two items are a bathing suit and cover-up. The bottom to the bathing suit is pink leopard with RUFFLES (another essential for any little girl), and the cover-up has little ears on it.... TOO cute. And what's an outfit without some accessories:

Madison has lots of hair, so she can definitely rock these bows right away. I just need to make sure mom put's them on her!

So that's how I spent my time at the mall... and so the search for the little black going out dress is to be continued...