Eight wardrobes, $175

Seven people and me having two distinct wardrobes means a lot of clothes.

I had a very good day shopping yesterday..

I was very balanced in my purchases. I thought of my male side, and my family's needs, and "just happened" to supplement my fem wardrobe along the way. I pre-ran the Goodwill Store yesterday and was nose to glass this morning 15 minutes before they opened. (yes I am obsessed)

The reason I was waiting so anxiously? I found a navy all wool genuine Brooks Brothers 3 button blazer, and the tag color meant that by today it would be $1!!!! A $480 jacket is now mine, all mine. I scored 1/2 dozen all silk ties, including a real Gucci, and and just as if "Bob's your uncle" a Nordstrom's tie by Robert Talbot. Gave me a grin. A couple of real nice men's wear trousers including the bottom 1/2 to a men's suit with buttons for braces. I got yet another London Fog wool lined trench, an actual Polo shirt in royal blue, my favorite. I'm thinking of going m-t-f-t-m.

My femme wardrobe increased by an a-line sleeveless dress, a red size 6 gown (Dee hates me for inhaling into it, a brown and white checked golf wrap-around skort, a double-breasted men's cut jacket dress, and a pair of black pointy-toed, low heeled, sling-backs.

Dee came to the first and third store with me and combed the kids jean sections and came up with a dozen pairs for the middle two kids. I combed the size zero-two section for the twelve year old.

I looked high and low for skirts (not the hemlines, the racks). I found Dee a really nice plaid knee length lined wool, a 75% silk and 25% linen melon colored one, a light weight wool one in that trendy cocoa color. On her own she found several additions to her current favorite genre, nice fitted layering shirts. I found a couple of really good quality additions for her.

The 12 year old (who just glued on fake nails tonight) is the easiest to buy for. She has a fun sense of style, and everything cute comes in her size. I found a princessly size 4-6 gown that fit my perfectly and lit up her face when she saw it.
We found her a couple of short jackets that the girls wear with long layering shirts showing below. She has plenty of layering t-shirts so we found fun tops for over.

We did well for the hard to buy for 10 year old girl. Her rules include, no pink, no sparkles, no shorts, lots of pockets, soccer and sarcasm are a big plus. Dee really combed the t-shirt racks and we "splurged" on some 1.99 shirts even though it was dollar day. I think we even went $2.99 for an especially sarcastic saying on a shirt. She was so happy with it that we slipped a purple (her favorite color) Sunday-go-to-meetin dress that is beautiful on.

Dee found a small cheerleader skirt and offered it up to the girls if either wanted to use it as a Halloween costume. (the 12 year old would have glammed it up, the 10 year old would have gone with 'dead cheerleader'). Neither were interested. Dee said she'd add it to the dress-up box.

Right on cue the 8 year-old announced that he looked forward to it. He also liked his dinosaur t-shirts, new jeans, his sarcastic shirt, and some striped polos.

The teenager, sho used to skateboard in my tailored to my size all wool suits, is now too much of a teenager to express outward enthusiasm for anything as pedestrian as clothes. He did seem to like the shirts and pants we got him. I am going on the positive inflection in the grunts issued. He seemed indifferent to the nice double breasted black blazer I got him. On the other hand it was probably close to 100 degrees yesterday. Not the best time to imagine oneself in a coat but ag great time to buy one.

We spent less than $175 and got probably over 150 individual articles of clothing.

My spectator pumps.

Loved these shoes when I saw them in a thrift store. I need a conservative business suit to wear with them. Or a nice wool skirt and plain blouse maybe. I put them on with the cocktail dress just because I have been wanting pictures of those (and other shoes).

You can see my zippers on my right shin from my losing car/motorcycle argument. My Orthopedist did good work just so I could walk, let alone look good in hose! He might have had a plastic surgeon assist if he (or I) had any idea at the time I would later wax my legs, put on sheer hose and sexy shoes and show off his work to the world.

Make-up by Barbara.

I have been cheating on my make-up by having Dee do it for me. She was leaving for her part-time job for a couple of hours and the cable was out. If I can;t talk about dressing up, I guess ~sigh~ I could ACTUALLY dress up.

Last time we did pictures, Dee got pretty good results without a planned layer of liquid foundation (we forgot to bring it with us)

This time she suggested I add that layer this time. I did and turned my face into very soft, gently cracking leather.

Trying to salvage some self-respect before she got home, I donned my wig, and a cute little cocktail dress Dee found me. The make-up isn't good at close range, But I haven't dressed in ages, So when she got home I had her take some pictures. My spectator pumps don't really go with the party dress, but I have been wanting some pics of them, So we combined elements to take some pictures.

Feeling pretty Butch lately.

To Illustrate:

On a forum I belong to, a woman who hunts with her family for Deer, Hog, Squirrel and Coyote mentioned her happy anticipation of the season opening.

Someone who I presume doesn't hunt, hasn't hunted, and is not a vegan. This person I assume feels that they eat is more honorable if it was killed by someone else and better still that domestic livestock's death was inconsequential because unlike say the deer the animal never lived free, so it's life one presumes was worthless. I could ask these questions but I'd get more bumper sticker animal "rights" morality.

They said:

To deliberately take the life an innocent creature for any other reason than to eat it or as a last resort of self-defence is an anathama. Those who do not respect life deserve no respect themselves.

I fumed and typed and began the search for their inevitable post previously where no doubt they defended some other idiot's right to think something ridiculous because they "feel" a certain way. I realized before hitting enter that this troll was one of those overly clever in their own mind types that will defend and parry with silly arguments and diversions without in anyway even considering the substance of my refutation of their premise. I decided to put my thoughts down here in case I feel the need to respond to the next idiot I can just cut and paste.

I was going to respond:

At least you didn't resort to the usual tripe about "defenseless" animals. (As all animals not extinct have been given many and varied effective defenses.)

As far as innocent, what does this mean in terms of an animal? My dogs occasionally looks guilty when they apparently know they have been misbehaving. People who actually study animal behavior even at slogan rich universities call this phenomenon anthropomorphism. These are attributes that we as humans imbue on animals in order to equate their learned behaviors to human motivations.

I find it fascinating that the very people that cry the loudest when their ox is being gored are the first to sharpen their horns when it is a subject that they basically have no experience with or real vested interest in. The best example I ever saw is a car with many bumper stickers. Two that the person's highly enlightened mind decided were in harmony with their philosophy of life (literally life) were "Meat is Murder" and "My Body my Choice" . This person values the potential of an animal of the potential of a human being. Worse though was the self righteous pronouncement that no one can tell them what to [I]take out of their body[/I] by violent means, but she could certainly look down on anyone that puts a burger [I]into their body[/I].

Especially in male mode I consider myself highly opinionated and argumentative. There have been so many threads where someone has posted something that defies logic and just begs a reasoned response. When someone feels their lifestyle choices or sexual peccadilloes are being 'judged' the response is always, If you aren't interested, don't read the thread, don't comment, and if you do, use kid gloves. Somebody needs to jump on the soapbox and defend the feelings of the hunters.

Those who do not respect other peoples opinions deserve no respect for their poorly formed opinions.

The place I read this? A site for crossdressers. My apparel at the time? entirely male. I really should slip on some hose at the bare minimum.

Edit: So I went back and tried to ignore it, but my fingers flew of their own accord. The next version:

I am feeling a bit relieved to find that the bumper sticker is wrong then. Meat in fact, as you 'judge' it is NOT murder then? Great! Save me a venison stake, some ribs, and a little squirrel stew.

Innocent? Anthropomorphism aside, what standard shall we hold the animal's behavior to? Beyond a reasonable doubt? By the preponderance of evidence? What if the coyote has an "innocent" lamb in it's jaws, should one convene an inquest to determine whether he was a predator or a scavenger in that instance, I mean if you don't have an actual witness of the lamb-o-cide? What if the lamb was asking for it? :tongueout

Good thing this was so well reasoned, I'd hate to think anyone on here would jump in rashly and make a judgment about anyone else's lifestyle or activity.

What my "Male Side" finds sexy versus my "Femme Side's" tastes.

Someone on the forum posed the question:

"Why do so many TVs insist on showing stocking tops and suspenders in their pictures? How often do you see real girls flashing upper thighs unless they are on the game on a street corner?"

My response was:

"We often mistake the quick accidental flash of just a hint of the stretching of a stocking that suggests that a women is wearing a garter belt, with the pure fantasy that she showed us the tops of both stockings.

This is a purely male construction. It is fed by the male posed, male photographed "gentleman's" art that is of course designed for its consumers, horny men.

Less (er well maybe more actually) is definitely sexier on many levels, but that doesn't stop some from taking the quick jump from the suggestive to the bawdy.

In context though, such posing by TV's for other TV's and their male admirer's is in and of itself a perfectly valid niche er "art form". But no, lesbian or even the bi-curious woman, would look at such a photo and say, mmm, give me a piece of that.

(hmmm of course why does my wife salivate at the shirtless Beckham?...things to ponder...)"

In real life, on exactly one occasion, I caught such a glimpse.

No, not of Beckham's abs. The distended ripple of stocking as it was tugged upward by an unseen suspender. The woman was tastefully attired in a business suit and unadorned heels. I first noticed as she arranged herself into her car after work. I was awestruck at the sight and stood in reverent silence for probably too long after she modestly slid her legs into the car and shut the door. On the bawdier side, Dee used to delight in my pleasurable discomfiture at knowing that under her modest office attire was something designed by Frederick himself. Possibly in or near Hollywood. She used to delight in tormenting me with the snap of a garter strap through the fabric.

Once the girls who worked near her were passing around fashion circulars. The one getting the most comments was the Victoria's Secret mailing. At one point several were crowded around it commenting on some of the racier items and men's fascinations with them. Her attractive and none-too-prudish supervisor commented, "Can you imagine a woman actually wearing a thing like that?" pointing out a sexy black merry-widow. Dee laughed inside and quietly snapped her garter strap.

My closeted femme side mostly had access to, and experience with intimate apparel. This is probably common to many beginning CD's. I thought initially of sexy playboy poses when I thought of Barbara's potential appeal. Now that I have expanded her wardrobe to outerwear it is interesting to see how pretty I feel in more modest apparel. This holds true even as my dieting figure makes baring more certainly achievable.

I'm thinking I need to do more sit-ups both to make sure Beckham - the ultimate soccer mom fantasy date - does not steal Dee away, but also to flatten the tummy for borrowing back a merry-widow sometime.

Deportment or "How to Stand like a Chick"

My first rudimentary attempts to pass as a women occurred only about 3 months ago. I took photos to see for myself how the clothes looked and to be able to get some feedback on what I could do to improve. This was all in preparation for my big plan to wow my wife with my loveliness.

Since then with Dee's help there have been some major improvements. There are indefinable cues that say to the human eye, "That is a female" or "That is a male". One of the things she taught me was how a woman shifts her body slightly, really without thinking about in in a way that is slimming to the camera. She showed me countless examples of stars on the red carpet and you could tell which saw the camera and which were caught off guard. My first example of the pictures I took I wasn't sure what was wrong with the pose. I laughed to see the pose men make when standing in front of a urinal.


I long ago dumped many photos that were frighteningly unflattering. Yes, even worse than that, ~shudder~ far,far worse. One where I wore some glasses and a prominent set of double chins looked like my dad in drag. This was not a pleasant sight to say the least. The double chin one was deleted in the camera. A couple of more pictures survived the later digital purge.



Recently, a new member on crossdressers.com Alena from Minsk posted a link to their home page. Stunning photos. What really struck me, and Dee when I showed her was how well the posing was done especially the most recent few photo sets. I asked about it and was told that the secret for them was to take lots of digital pictures to practice, and learn from the "male" looking ones whatnot to do and to remember to repeat the poses of the "female" appearing poses. The results really speak for themselves. I highly recommend a look.

Another great resource for CD's is Rene Reyes page. For posing tips her section on posing is really useful. Dee read it and got some insights on what it is that I was doing wrong that she could see was off but just couldn't then put her finger on what it was.

I should include an after pose that resulted from Dee's coaching just a month after the first were taken, This one was from our first photo shoot together and after our first thrift store splurge. The make-up was (well is) still a learning process so a little B&W filter and some clever photo-shopping helped with beard shadow. Improvement, but still needs work. A couple of photo sessions later was better still. I have high hopes of continuing the trend of self improvement until I can sing with confidence, "I Fell Pretty..."

Further retail therapy.

Dee and I hit a couple of Goodwill thrift stores Saturday. We spent much too much but got some cute things. In the first store, I got mostly things for my manly side. With my diet I am no longer snug in size 15.5 necks, I am actually comfortable in 14.5 which was my size for years. Good to have less chins to accommodate. I got two short sleeve dress shirts and three polo style shirts, two with new tags on them. None over $4. I also got a pair of male running shorts by Adidas. I was reluctant to spend the $7 for a pair of used shorts but I only have male knee-length and girl shorts. I am more likely to run en homme than en femme. Turned out that color tag was 50% off.

I almost got a shirt for the 12 year old that said "Will work for shoes" but decided that was more about me than her. Speaking of shoes, Dee got some red strappy heels, a pair of tie on sling backs, some spectator pumps. We got a dress to share, and one for me and a couple for her. I got a handful of ties but they didn't make it home :( not sure why I think I set them down.

Passed on a handmade desk with a repair done to a broken hinge. The hinge repair has to be 40-50 years old at least. The actual piece looks like something someone cobbled together out of old really wide floorboards. It was kind of rustic but interesting details. It had little cubbies and drawers and slots under the angled lift top. I noticed the piece was actually nailed together, but what made it interesting was I think the nails were hand-forged. really interesting, but what to do with somehting like that. Plus thats 40 pieces of clothing on dollar day.