afternoons in the city and a new skirt

A few weeks ago, I went to Capitol Hill with Marcus's mom to check out a few cute shops I'd heard about. One of them, Pretty Parlor, had been on my to-do list for quite some time because it had come to my attention that they hung petticoats off the ceiling. While we were there, I had a blast trying on all kinds of beautiful things that I'd never thought I'd find in person anywhere--one such item was a gorgeous skirt in a colorful print. There was only one size left, and even though I sort of knew it wasn't mine, I had to try it on anyway and hope it ran small. (It didn't.) Still, I couldn't get over the pattern and made a note of the brand so I could search for it later. When I started hunting for it online, I came up short. Before I gave up completely, I decided to check out the designer, Jamie von Stratton, on her  webpage to see if she had any other stores that she sold to listed--or even her own shop to buy from! While I didn't find anything like that, I did come across her contact page, so I figured "why not?" and shot her a quick email describing the skirt and asking if that print was sold anywhere else.

She responded the next morning and said that, yes, she recognized the skirt I was referring to but no, it wasn't sold anywhere else. However, she did inform me that she had just enough left to make maybe one more and asked my measurements. I sent them back to her, and a week later, she contacted me to say my special, just-for-me skirt was ready!

Today, Marcus agreed to take me down to the city after lunch to go get it. Before I say anything else, even though he doesn't read this, doing this for me was a serious gesture him and greatly appreciated. Cities, especially narrower ones like Seattle, have a claustrophobic effect on him and he tends to avoid them. As someone who has my share of phobias, both rational and not, I generally try to respect his aversion to that area. He insisted that it was fine, though, so I helped him navigate and off we went!

The residential area we were in was beautiful, and we got there early so we walked around for a little bit (he actually loved that staircase up there and asked if he could try taking a picture of me on it!) before going to pick up my skirt.

The building was amazing--I'm pretty sure it was an old hotel at one point. Marcus wasn't a fan of the dark staircases and hallways, which, admittedly, did sort of lend a horror-movie vibe to the place. When we got to the door, though, it was like a whole different world. The apartment was set up to be sort of a sewing studio, so the entire living room was covered in gorgeous fabrics, racks full of clothes and a ton of giant hats. The open window had this perfect view of the entire bay, which brightened the entire room immensely. I'll be honest--I'd live there! Jamie was incredibly nice. She let me try on my skirt in the bathroom and checked to make sure it was the right fit. She'd asked me how tall I was beforehand, so she'd even gone to the trouble of making it proportionate to my height...no tailoring for me on this one! I was elated and thanked her profusely. She was sweet and chatted with us for a few minutes about things to do in the area, gave us a few shopping suggestions and sent us on our way.

Marcus was nice enough to offer to go shopping for a little bit while we were in the area even though I know it's pretty boring for him--we visited a new Goodwill that Jamie had pointed us to, I bought us both some coffee, then we hit up Pretty Parlor one more time. It was a great day, and I think Marcus really hit it off with Vincent, Pretty Parlor's resident cat.

(This picture was priceless--he was posing with his drink and putting his pinkie in the air, but I waited until he looked away to get this one. When I showed it to him, he started laughing and said he liked that I included the massive dresses in the background. Ahh, he's a good sport.) 

I can't wait to wear this skirt everywhere. Seriously, I think it matches with just about every color. Also, I would highly recommend checking out Jamie von Stratton's website--she does a lot of pretty cool stuff! I couldn't have been happier with this whole experience.

The takeaway from this one: if you like something, don't be afraid to speak up and ask about it--the worst that happens is you get a no or don't hear back--and in my case, I happened to become the owner of the prettiest skirt I've ever seen!