Outfit: Rachel Pally

WEARING:
Rachel Pally dress (purchased via Refinery29 Reserve)
Melissa sandals
Jas M.B. bag (black version only is online)

I’m cheating, because I’m not actually wearing this today, but I wanted you to see it in case you hadn’t already purchased the Refinery29 Reserve for Rachel Pally (expires on 6/3). I’m a huge fan of Rachel Pally so I snatched this up as soon as I got my reserve. I know, it’s WAYYYY out of the norm for me, but since I had credit to purchase my reserve, this dress cost me out of pocket only $28 – so I thought I’d play around a bit and go out of my comfort zone. I love the pattern, and the style of the dress (the back is very low), and because it’s Rachel Pally, it’s AMAZING. It just drapes perfectly, and falls in such a way to hide ANY flaw 😉

Anyway, this dress is more an “I’m going to be outside all day in 100 degree heat” dress, not an “I’m going to visit my sick dog in the hospital and go to Whole Foods” dress, so I’ll be wearing jeans and a t-shirt like I have been for days. But since today is the first day I feel a little more optimistic about the health of my puppy (he’s not a puppy, he’s 11 1/2, but he’s MY puppy), I thought I’d snap a quick picture for you and encourage you to get the Rachel Pally Reserve deal – it’s TOTALLY worth it.

(there’s more)

And since the emergency vet and hospitalization/medication/tests for so far 5 days and counting is VERY expensive, I’ll be slowing selling off a lot of my wardrobe (again). It’s not an ideal situation, we’re paying the bills the best we can, but this has been a serious wake-up call for me, and although I’ve tried to do it before and mostly failed, this is an opportunity for me to REALLY focus on what’s most important; my family (which of course includes my dog).

Since I gained weight after losing it, I went on a shopping binge to find things that would cover my body up, even though I had enough. I was frustrated with myself and upset, and shopping always cheered me up! But now again, I have much more than I need. More than I want, really. I do enjoy having most of the things I have, but now when I look at them, I see money that I could have saved to pay for vet bills. I knew my baby was getting older, and would start to have health problems, I just didn’t expect them now, to last for so long, and for them to be SO EXPENSIVE. In my closet, I see dresses that I never wear, shoes that are nearly new, and feel guilty that I didn’t put other, much more important things first.

Don’t misunderstand, his vet bills are being paid for, but not entirely in cash, which means they still must be paid for…we’re not denying him anything he needs – in fact, he’s getting wonderful care – I just need to think now about paying the credit cards off, and planning for future expenses. Which is honestly something I don’t do very well; plan for the future, that is. I’m an instant gratification kind of a girl, and that really needs to change.

It’s funny, during all this, I heard a story on NPR about kids & money and they mentioned a test some researchers had done with children and marshmallows: each child was given one marshmallow and told that if he still had it (hadn’t eaten it) in 15 minutes, they’d get 2 more marshmallows. Guess which kid I would have been?? I’d have eaten the marshmallow within seconds of getting it…

Anyway, I’m struggling right now, which is why I’m not posting a lot, but I think today things are looking up. The dr. is going to try feeding him to see if he can keep some food down today, and I’m going to go hang out with him for a bit in a little while. Hopefully he can come home tomorrow (he’s been in the hospital since Sunday) and he’ll continue to get better. The hardest thing about all of this has been just not knowing for sure what’s going on. We do know that he’s not at the end of his life yet, he can get better, but he has been very very sick and is only slowly recovering.

Thanks for listening, and I always appreciate your reading/visiting Grechen’s Closet. I use this as a diversion a lot of the times, but it is also my life – more than just my “job” – and I consider all of you my friends 🙂