Look? Doesn't Mommy look PRETTY? Can you say Ooooh, Pretty? (Or, how to fish for compliments from a toddler)

So I got a new dress! In my "professional" life, I play ballerina and wear soft stretchy things to work. I wear soft stretchy things around the house, and then when/if I go somewhere not work or home, I pair jeans or hiking pants with soft stretchy things. Don't get me wrong, I love love love fashion, and I have some stellar pieces, I just don't get to wear them often. My wardrobe goes from plain-jane to rock concert goddess to high-fashion with no in-betweens, so finding a cool casual dress that I like is usually a challenge that I just don't accept.

The lovely folks at Old Navy gave me a chance to go pick out one of their new dresses and give it a test-drive recently. I had it in my head that Old Navy dresses would mostly be beachy cover-up and cheap jersey dress type pieces. Not the case! There were a surprising number of different styles and materials of dresses, from business to beach, jersey to linen, crepe to chiffon. I had a hard time in the dressing room, most of the dresses just hung funny on my frame, but there were three contenders by the time the flurry of trying on was done, and this one was the winner!

This dress is super soft and swishy, I find myself swinging around in it just to feel it move, which is either the little girl or dancer in me, maybe both. The print is a fun black feathers on cream. It looks like a vintage material, and I like that air of quirkiness about it. The length is nice, which is always hard for a short girl like me. Dresses tend to be way too long, way too short, or an awkward middle that just makes me look somehow shorter. This one falls perfectly. I like that the waist drawstring is adjustable, it helps give me a bit of shape, and since I'm a bustier petite, it's an empire waisted dress, though on some it might fall at the natural waist. It's cut just sexy enough that I feel confident and gorgeous in it and not so sexy that I'm falling out all over and feeling trashy. Today I finally had a chance to get dressed up in it. I paired it with some vintage turquoise earrings, cowboy boots, and a micro-crocheted lace belt as a headband.
I spun around the living room and tried to get DB to tell me I looked pretty. He giggled that I was spinning and asked me to put on his sandals. Oh well, at least I tried! We took The Hero some lunch to work and he thought it was a great look on me. I held my head up high all day as I ran my typical mom-errands. I felt like a million bucks.

Full disclosure: I was given my choice of dress from Old Navy as a gift in exchange for review. I found this sampling opportunity through the awesome site Crowdtap! I've been a member with them for over 6 months now and I can say that it's been great fun, I've earned over $70 in gift-cards to Amazon as well as opportunities to sample and give feedback to brands. No spam, legit rewards, minimal effort on my part. All a win! If you want to give it a shot too, you can accept my invitation by clicking on the link above.