zuisa - macy's has a great petite section, and being 5'2 i find looking for formal wear outside petite departments to be an exercise in futility and misery as nothing ever hangs right. If there's a Nordstrom rack near you sometimes they have great finds. I've also had occasional luck at Sears and JC Penney. long enough? spendy but pretty

can you toss a nice jacket or bolero over the strapless dress you have?

ooh yeah, christmas party dresses on sale, plus the first crop of prom dresses making their way into stores. actually not a horrible time to be shopping for evening wear!

Well, I've gotten the tree and ornaments put away, the carpet swept, pre-snowpacalypse groceries bought, and dishes dealt with. Now I'm trying to decide if I should do a load of laundry tonight. Eh, probably. I'd rather vicariously shop for formal wear.

below-knee, not strapless, a color, and flattering to a small chest: [link]

all those rhings, but black: [link]

this is more mature, but still lovely: [link]

jersey, but with the right jewelry could work: [link]

You just have all these places book-marked, don't you, msbelle.

They've pre-emptively cancelled school for tomorrow - it's not showing yet, but there's a big storm coming and it will snow/sleet all day. The kids did that high-pitched screaming thing and ran around the house when I told them.

HA! no.

flea, lucky? you. I am thrilled that the snow did not happen here, did not even want a delayed start.

With what they are predicting, we will be lucky if we don't have closure on Tuesday too. My big fear is a power outage; we don't have a fireplace or any alternative heat source.

Zuisa, eShakti might have some appealing items for you: [link] One great feature is that you can have these items made to your measurements, and you can customize the length as well as other aspects of each dress, for quite reasonable fees.

ETA: You can have them add straps to the strapless designs, too.