You're the inspiration

I had the brilliant idea today that, in honor of spring, I would hoof it to my friendly neighborhood Old Navy at lunch to pick up a few spring staples.

Unfortunately, everyone else in Seattle had the same idea.

I couldn't bring myself to pay $25-35 for a cute skirt that I could make for less than $10; they didn't have the capri pants I wanted in my size; they didn't have the divine Perfect Fit T-shirt in the colors I wanted. So I left, empty handed.

I detoured to Banana Republic and Anthropologie for inspiration. At Anthropologie, I was inspired to leave a puddle of drool on the wide-planked wood floor. But no matter how cute their flippy little spring skirts (and they were so cute that it almost brings a tear to my eye even now), I can't bring myself to pay about $90 for a skirt with an unfinished hem, no matter how fashionable (and, yes, part of the reason is that I could make that unfinished-hem skirt for a fraction of the price myself).

At Banana Republic, I was so close to buying a $78 crinkly, gauzy, pink-and-green-striped skirt that my fingers were tingling...but I didn't. Because I wasn't 100 percent crazy about the 2-inch band of pink around the hem. Sigh.

Then I went to Borders, with the intent of buying Vogue and InStyle for further inspiration, and as kind of a consolation prize. Instead, I flipped through them and put them back on the shelf, coming away only with the conviction that Katie Holmes is one of the cutest 20-somethings alive, and that it is really, really wrong that she is dating Tom Cruise.

By then I was dragging, and due back at work, so I made my one tiny purchase of the day: A grande sweetened iced coffee from Starbucks. Ahhhh...refreshingly satisfying. But I wouldn't want to wear it.