Fashion Mementos

I've had this fabric for over a year and now that the dress is finally done, I wish I'd made it sooner, but you know me and procrastination.  As much as I love the way this dress turned out, and the fact that it only took me a few hours of work to get it done once I finally committed to it, the true gem in this outfit turned out to be the shoes.  I'm not much of a shoe person, as is probably obvious from the fact that I wear my Zest is History Heels from ModCloth with practically everything, but these particular heels are a different story.

    My daughter was celebrating a birthday recently and in  of a party, she wanted to be taken shopping instead.  "Yes!"  I thought, "this is the day I've been waiting for!"  These days I'm mostly an online shopper, but she wanted to go to the mall, so we did.  Wow!  It was bleak.  I went to this mall my whole childhood and teen life and never was the parking lot so empty.  "Uh, oh," I thought, "this isn't a good sign."  
    Once inside the mall it was just as empty, not just empty of people, but empty of stores.  The mall, even just ten years ago, was a thriving hub of commerce and more importantly teenage socialization.  Now it was empty.  All that was missing was the lone call of some tragic bird and a hollow breeze blowing a tumble weed by.  No one seemed to notice but me, and since my girl knew exactly where she was headed we didn't really pause to take it in.  After we went to her favorite shop for accessories I suggested we look for clothes.  No Clothes-She was adamant.  But, I persisted and we found ourselves at Charlotte Russe.  

    When my daughter was a very little girl, just two or three, I used to shop at Charlotte Russe.  I loved their cute tops and sundresses, everything was cotton and comfortable.  My mother would go with us, and while I was trying things on, she would sit with my baby and let her try on all their glamorous heels.  It didn't matter how long I needed to try things on and try to find the right sizes, my girl was as happy as could be as long as she could try on those shoes.  We didn't go to the mall often, but it was a tradition that anytime we went we stopped to let my first and then my second daughter try on CR shoes.  So I was a little surprised and totally broken-hearted that the store is closing across the country.  She's finally old enough to wear these shoes and they're going away.  We didn't stay long; it was just too sad, but I couldn't stop thinking about all our happy memories there.

        The next day I called my mom, loaded her and both my girls into the car and drove back to the mall for one last shoe trying on extravaganza.  Oh, yes, we tried them all on while sitting on that fab couch in front of all the mirrors.  Of course we took a few photos and I'm not ashamed to say I cried a little.  I know it's just a store, but it was the place where my little girls felt so beautiful and so happy.  Now they're not little anymore and there won't be many more dress-up days of any kind, but I'm sad to see this one go so soon and yet grateful we got to do this one more time, just us girls.

On the way out I spied these fashionable heels and knew they'd go just perfectly with the dress I'd just finished sewing a couple of days before, and since everything in the store was 70% off, I nabbed them for a mere $10.  Not only do I have this wonderful memory, but I have a great memento of the day and I'll think of it every time I wear them.

Shopping Info:  Hoffman Digital No Weeds Here Botanical Flowers White Fabric, Heels from Charlotte Russe