One that got away.

Can you see this dress in this tiny photo? It's all I've got to remind me. I can only see this as if from a great distance. Adorable, late 50s cotton day dress with hot air balloons aloft and trailing flowers. It sold yesterday for about $36.

I dallied, I tarried, I debated. It is pink, I thought, though just about my size. I really need more blue in my wardrobe, I reasoned, but hey, some of these balloons are indeed green and blue. It's so traffic-stopping cute, goddamn it. No, go home and hem the 2 or 3 broken frocks that still remain unwearable. (Remember the Don Quixote dress. It is still unwearable. It rebukes you even now.) This fulfills my New Years Resolution to fearlessly combine red and pink. And I don't have anything with hot air ballooooons! Go back to computer, log on, bid now.

Just at that moment, when I was about to surrender to my first ebay experience, I discovered that ebay bidding is blocked on my server. (Not that I'm doing any of this at work--never!) Of the 150 novelty prints I have posted here, this is the first time I've been driven to bid. (Well, except for the Moulin Rogue skirt, where I tried to get Rudolpho to bid for me, but that's another depraved tale.) I was so besotted that I thought of adding an item that I cannot even try on to my already overflowing closet. Only to find that I've been protected from this slippery slope all along by Big Brother. Ha!

No worries, I thought, I shall hie myself elsewhere to get my fix. But oh goslings, the point of this blog was not to shop more but to shop less. I went to fencing class instead. (No, not the kind where you have to unload hot watches, the kind with an epée.) Safe. Until the next novelty heart-breaker comes along.

No, I am not so noble--I'm going to the flea market this weekend. Really just for old times sake. Really. My favorite flea market is closing at the end of this month. Yet another victim of NYU's relentless expansion over the village. I'll let you know how I fare. I'll be shopping with tears in my eyes, no doubt.

Enjoy the dress, winning bidder! I hope it fits perfect and you wear it on summer nights among the fireflies.