The moral of this story is that you need to try everything on before you buy it. I am between sizes right now, so depending on the store, the time of day, and the style of the clothing I could go up or down or just be realistic and skip it. Here are some the successes and failures I’ve had in the past month or so. If you can’t tell by the below, I am so ready for the warmer weather so I can wear shorts!!

Hits

I’ve been plotting to get a classic navy blazer for a long time. The Regent blazer from JCrew was finally on a decent sale (sometimes this style is excluded from sales) so I jumped. I’m planning to wear it all the time.

The only thing a navy blazer doesn’t go with is navy pants. Enter the fine gauge long cardigan. I love to wear a long cardigan with trousers or ankle pants and a white blouse. This one from Loft will go really well with all my black/navy/grey pants.

I love jean shorts. I remembered that my jean shorts from last summer were ready for permanent retirement so I started looking for new options. I got these from the Gap which is wear I get a lot of my shorts. I find, however, that jeans run a little small at the Gap at first, but then loosen up significantly when you wear them. That makes it hard to gauge when trying them on, but I decided to size down, and I think I made the right decision.

Misses

I’ve been looking for a cute pair of linen or chambray drawstring shorts as an alternative to my standard jean and khaki style shorts. I saw these at the Loft and I almost bought them online, but I decided to go to store and try them on. The larger size was falling off of me and the smaller size looked like tight booty shorts… Pass.

I tried these Ann Taylor pants on just to give this cropped wide leg trend a shot. I wasn’t optimistic but you never know until you try. It was a no go for me. I’m not sure if it was the pleating or the length but it wasn’t for me.

I wanted to love this shirtdress from Anthropologie. I thought it would be nice change from my plain jane work dresses. For this one I erred on the side of caution and sized up because it’s Anthro. I think the dress is supposed to be a little looser but it just looked too big on me. The shoulder seams were too far past my shoulders and the length was a little longer than I expected. A sad return.

Have you had any good shopping luck lately?