Red and Black Ball - the prep (or in which i cry and feel sorry for myself)

Last Saturday, I got to go to the Red and Black Ball and celebrate Sugar's 2nd Anniversary. It was awesome.

On Friday, I had a serious fashion crisis. I had made a dress. And, well, I don't know exactly what I did. I'm a reasonably competent seamstress. I thought I followed the pattern. But I must have done something wrong somewhere. I think I misunderstood what type of fabric I should have used. Regardless. It was AWFUL! So, I settled on a back up outfit. But it just wasn't fabulous. At all. No worries. I'd just go to Nina's Power XChange on Saturday.

But, it turns out that Nina is moving her store to just online. And the bricks and mortar store is already closed (stay tuned for a moving sale). So, I checked out the stores on The Avenue. Where at Form, when I asked to see what they had in black or red in a size 12, a very petite woman looked at me as if I had just taken a crap in the store and informed me that "Form is a designer boutique, and we don't carry those sizes". Nice. Apparently they only go up to a size 8. Granted, I'm usually a 10. I'm a little bigger than what's normal for me. But I would never, ever fit into an 8. Even at my skinniest. I moved on to Shine. Where the staff was amazing (as always). Made me feel pretty even though I was practically wearing my pajamas and needed a shower. I found a few things that I liked, but nothing was quite right for the event. S came and got me and we went to Chained Desires. Where, again, the staff was lovely, but nothing jumped out, grabbed me and said, "TAKE ME HOME!!!"

So, I did what any good, reasonable femme would do. I started to cry. And then kicked myself a little for the depth of my vanity. Sniffed. And decided that looking fabulous was over rated. And went back to work.

S however, did not give up so easily. 30 minutes later I got a phone call telling me to meet her at Cross Keys.

Cross Keys? You see Cross Keys is a little tiny mall just up the street. It has a hotel, condos, Chicos, Talbots, Ann Taylor. You know, my mother would shop there. So, I was a bit confused. But S has a pretty good eye so I hopped in the jeep and took off.

She was at Ruth Shaw's (no web site). It turns out they were one of the first (if not the first) store to bring designer fashion to Baltimore (30 years ago). They had two dresses waiting for me, took one look at me and told me which dress I'd like better and ushered me to the dressing room. The dress was perfect. Long, flowing, fabulous. And super comfortable. I plan on wearing it every day this summer.

S went home with the dress and I headed back to the store for the last minute stuff for the party.