OOTD: Day 1 of Holiday Luncheons

Today I will be going to lunch with everyone in my office. We are basically occupying the back part of the meeting hall in the building here and having a lovely holiday lunch. We were advised to wear "festive attire."

Dress: Isaac Mizrahi for Target (old--story follows!)

Cardigan: Merona for Target

Belt: Merona for Target

Earrings and necklace: American Eagle

Shoes: Style & Co. via Beatty's

This is a really bad picture, one that makes me look very hippy, which is funny because since Alice has been born, I carry my weight more in the stomach, thigh area than in the hips. I used to be the Queen of Planet Hips. So this is like Vintage Morg, all over again. The funny thing was, I had this picture where I popped a real pose with my foot up and everything and it looked really cute, and most importantly, I looked thin, but it came out all blurry. Boo urns. So this is what you get. Sorry. I was trying to give you a kind of close-up of my sparkly necklace and belt, but well, you know. I suck. Why I keep beating myself up and posting this pictures, I'll never know.

Let me tell you about this dress, though. I bought this dress way back when Isaac Mizrahi had his line at Target. It was a bit too small when I got it, and wouldn't zip. I gave it to my grandmother, who was going to take it to a tailor for me and have something snipped, but she forgot about it and I did too. Then, this fall, I found it in her closet when I was looking for a Bingo game. It was now too big, so my grandmom took it to the tailor and they snipped and tucked and did whatever else they needed to do, and voila! I have a new dress that I love. Funnily, I also wore it for Halloween with a witches hat, orange peep toes and a purple cardigan. All-occasion holiday dress? Yes, I believe so.

The shoes are a similar discovery. I bought these two years ago at Beatty's, which is this shoe clearance center in Kingsport, TN. Basically, they take shoes that are worn in print ads or are catalog overruns or are WHATEVER and sale them for cheap. And they have pretty awesome name brands. My mom has especially good luck there because she has little feet and they are not picked over. She has gotten Uggs (ahem) and bought me a lot of Doc Martens there when I was a teenager. I got these there when I was with her once, and promptly forgot about them. But Alice found them over the weekend, and I realized that I have one more pair of close toed shoes to wear in the snow. And they are actually comfortable! Amazing.

Anyway, this is first attempt at "Festive." I have to go to another one of these things tomorrow (armed with a gift and with cupcakes), so I will show you my other sparkly, festive outfit tomorrow. Hint: it does not involve a sweater with a blinking Santa.