Dressing in Public for the First Time!

 Hello There,

    Well friends today was the big day, it finally happened, I WENT OUT IN PUBLIC FULLY DRESSED AS A WOMAN!!! WOOOO!!!!! This has been months in the planning and years coming now. Strap in everyone and enjoy my story!

    But first, how did I get here to this moment? Well I had two things to decide, where to go and what to wear. Starting with where to go, this was no easy choice. Go somewhere exciting, where I can engage in some feminine fun? Go somewhere lowkey where I can fly under the radar and have no one around to notice me? Well the point of going out in public is to be around other people right? So I wanted to choose someplace where other people would be present. But where to go, a store, a park, a mall? What I ended up deciding on is a gas station. I know it sounds lame but hear me out!

    I've talked at length about what a massive influence the now defunct Lisagirl.net is on me. Lisa had some great advice (as always) about how to choose a location to go out in public to. While it's certainly true that women do things like go clothing and shoe shopping. They also do simple things like mail a letter or get some gas. Women running errands happen more frequently than them going shopping. Lisa first gained her confidence of presenting as a woman in public by running simple errands. It just so happened that I needed to fill my car up with gas! So I both had an errand I needed to run and needed an opportunity to dress in public. So many people when they dress in public for the first time either choose somewhere in the middle of nowhere or choose somewhere packed like going to a club or bar. Lisa's advice was spot on, somewhere like a post office or gas station is a great opportunity to dress around people but not have anyone get too close to you. Lisa was no stranger to getting gas while dressed, and I'd like to thank her for the inspiration!

    Now for what to wear, I've been trying to plan an outfit for months now. Although I'd love to wear one of my favorite vintage dresses they would probably stand out a little too much for what I had planned. So I needed something a little more casual, something you'd see the average girl my age wearing. Jeans and a T-shirt, plain and simple. I've already chronicled my journey to find the perfect pair of jeans. With my new Levi's in hand I was ready to take a step out my door. I paired my new jeans with one of my favorite wide-banded V-neck T-shirts, in a striking blue color. I thought I was looking great, so I couldn't help but take some selfies. 

    But I ran into a problem, I had put so much focus on finding the perfect pair of jeans, I didn't remember to get a pair of women's shoes! Whoops! Well that meant if I was going out today I need to wear a pair of my guy shoes. I opted for a pair of black sneakers since some women's sneakers are plain black as well. But this created a problem, black sneakers didn't exactly match my current outfit! After spiraling for a few minutes I found a solution. Change my shirt, duh! So I swapped out my blue shirt and white cami for a black shirt and pink cami. This also gave me an opportunity to add a pink belt as well since it would match my camisole. After putting my outfit together I was ready to go. My makeup came out pretty well and I had my new wig on so I was feeling confident. After some hesitant circling I finally packed my purse and headed out the door!

    I didn't run into anyone while walking down the stairs of my apartment building, but I still breathed a sigh of relief when I got in my car. From there I gleefully drove to my destination! I made sure to look at every person passing bye as I drove to see if anyone was looking at me, catching a glimpse of me behind the wheel. When I finally arrived at a Wawa gas station I parked at the far corner pump, and with full confidence stepped out of my car. Like any other woman passing through I pumped my gas, and didn't stand out too much. However to commemorate the moment I did take some pics of me pumping gas.

    With a tank full of gas, I got back in my car and headed home. When I returned to my apartment I let out a breath of relieve and satisfaction, "I did it". I went out in public as a woman. It has been years coming but I finally did it. Now that I've ripped the Band-Aid off I'm excited to go out and try it again! So stay tuned everyone, hopefully more of Carly outdoors coming soon!

-Carly

My Top Five Favorite Princesses!

 Hello There,

    Everybody loves lists, and everybody loves Princesses (or at least everybody should!), so this should be a fun read for all! I'm here today to list my top five favorite princesses! Choosing which lovely lady falls on #1 was pretty difficult, but I thinks I've made my decision! So which royal wonder will be my favorite, let's count them down to find out!

Honorable Mention: Princess Ariel

    I've decided to include an honorable mention because there's a non-Disney princess on this list, and you all know how I'm ride or die with my Disney Princesses, so I felt a little bad about leaving Ariel off of my list! I never watched little mermaid as a kid like many, so I have no nostalgia associated with her character, but she's still enjoyable to watch none the less. She falls down compared to the other princesses on this list because her wardrobe is a bit lacking. Sure the pink dress is fine, and her wedding dress is fun, but what I'd consider her best dress, the sea foam green ball gown, is worn only in marketing material and in the Disney theme parks! So while yes the dress is incredible, it's not even in her movie! Lame!

5. Princess Rapunzel

    At number five I've got Rapunzel. Like Ariel I've only recently become attached to Rapunzel. Her infectious glee, and free spiritedness are just to endearing to ignore. Funnily enough however, initially I HATED Rapunzel's dress, it was just way too busy and peasant-ish to me. It has since grown on me however, and has far and away become one of my favorite dresses of all time!! So Rapunzel really has it all, the look, the personality and her movie is great too, she was an easy choice for my list!

4. Princess Cinderella

    At number four I've got Disney's most iconic princess: Cinderella. Strangely enough I'm really not that big a fan of Cinderella's movie or even Cinderella herself! What draws me to her is what she represents: Transformation. Makes total sense coming from someone who regularly transforms their gender doesn't it? Yes I love how the idea of how anyone can transform themselves into a beauty like Cinderella. It's not just the characteristic of transformation that draws me to Cinderella, you just can not go wrong with that iconic dress! Sparkly blue, puff sleeves, the ball gown silhouette, just amazing! Lastly as I mentioned earlier she's THE quintessential Disney Princess, how could she not hold a special place in my heart. So although she's not my favorite character or in my favorite movie, there's more than enough to love about Cinderella to warrant her inclusion on my list!

3. Princess Peach

    Here we are at our only non-Disney Princess on this list, at number three I've chosen Princess Peach! She's the video game industries most iconic princess (get out of town Zelda!), and with her recent appearance in the Super Mario Bros Movie, she has taken her place among cinema's greatest princesses. I have a long history with Princess Peach, which you can read all about in her dedicated blog post. So much about Peach appeals to me, there was no way she was gonna not make my list.

2. Princess Belle

    The next choice of princess was a really tough one, but at number two I've chosen princess belle. I know what you're thinking, the princess behind your namesake is only number two?!?! Things change, and new frontrunner has moved past my beloved Belle. But we'll talk about that other princess in a minute, right now it's all about Belle! Belle is everything you'd want from a princess, intelligent, kind, graceful, AND WHAT A DRESS!!! Yeah her dress is just ridiculously amazing, there was nothing else I desired to wear more as a child than Belle's iconic dress. Belle really is perfect in pretty much everyway, and honestly is probably interchangeable with the number one choice on this list. That being said I had to make a choice and I've recently found myself enjoying...

1. Princess Aurora

    Make it Pink! At number one we have Princess Aurora! Like I mentioned earlier for the longest time Belle was my favorite Princess but as I dived deeper and deeper into princess culture I found myself being drawn more and more to Aurora. I think she just encapsulates all the stereotypical qualities of femininity that draw me to it: Beauty (she's literally called sleeping beauty LOL), grace, charm, kindness. While belle certainly embodies modern femininity with her intelligence and strong will, Aurora embodies the aspects of femininity that I find to be missing during my time as male. 

    Also that dress though!! We all know pink is my favorite color, so how could I not choose the Disney Princess with an iconic pink dress. Sure the dress is blue some of the time, but Disney itself seems to prefer Pink as the color for the dress since it is the color predominately featured on all of its marking material as well as worn by Aurora in the Disney parks. Sure it's not a ball gown with a full wide skirt like most other dresses on this list, but it's sleek and feminine, and matches Aurora's grace.

    Is Sleeping Beauty the best Disney Princess movie? No. But it does still have some really redeeming characteristics that make it an enjoyable watch. Prince Phillip is a bad ass, and not only is Maleficent Disney's greatest villain, but she also turns into a freaken dragon! All that surrounding the lovely Aurora makes her story a fun one. Aurora really has every thing that draws me to princesses: femininity's stereotypical characteristics, an amazing dress, and a dragon! She's stolen my heart and sits atop the throne of my favorite Disney Princess!

-Carly

Wearing my Mom's Clothes One Last Time

 Hello There,

    As I've mentioned in my How I Started Dressing blog post, the first woman's clothing I wore was my mother's. Since then I've always had a massive amount of nostalgia for my favorite items in her wardrobe that I would regularly wear. My early experiences dressing in my mother's clothing have even influenced some of my current shopping trends. So naturally to say my mom's wardrobe has had a big impact on my life is an understatement.

    Of course as a young man I had to sneakily find opportunities to wear her clothing, when my parents were out of the house. Although I've since moved out of the house, and acquired my own wardrobe, I've always looked back on my favorite items of my mom's wardrobe with fondness. Well recently I had a rare opportunity, I was at my parent's home and they were away for a few days. So I thought it might be a good opportunity to wear my mom's clothing one last time so that I could take some pictures and share my favorite items with all of you. So I figure I'll go item by item and share them with you and how they influenced me!

Floral Panties: Like with most crossdressers one of the first things I tried on were panties, and my mom always had a great selection of microfiber panties that felt amazing to wear. This was definitely what sealed the deal for my love of panties and to this day I prefer silky panties because of the early days of wearing my mom's microfiber bikini panties. I decided to model her pair of floral microfiber bikini panties since them were one of my favorite when I was younger.

Pink Bra: As I mentioned in my How I Started Dressing blog post, my curiosity about bras were the original reason I started crossdressing. Although my mom had several bras I frequently wore, one of my absolute favorites was her pink bra, mostly because of the color but also because it had some padding in it which helped to create the illusion of cleavage. Although many of my favorite bras were missing from my mom's wardrobe during my visit I was happy to at least find my old reliable pink bra there.

White Bra: Funnily enough as I was digging through her wardrobe drawers I stumbled upon the exact white bra that inspired my surprise bra blog post. So I had to put it on for nostalgia's sake. Sure enough it looks exactly like the one I bought!

Favorite Maxi Dress: There was always one singular item in my mom's wardrobe that was my favorite item to wear, and it was her long blue maxi dress. It was made of an extremely soft silky material, decorated with rhinestones along the bust, and felt satisfyingly heavy to wear. During almost every dressing session I had in my mom's closet I would just have to try the dress on. To this day I am so upset because I haven't found a similar one to put in my wardrobe! 

Purple Wrap Dress: The dress that proved my body would look good in women's clothing was my mother's purple wrap dress. The way the dress was cut to show off hips and the bust, and minimize the waist made my figure look super feminine. Plus I thought the long sleeves were kinda fun. This is another dress which I would love to add a similar one to my wardrobe!

Pink T-Shirt & Jeans: The next two items are in a set because they go so well together. I had always loved pink as a color but my mom never really had much pink in her wardrobe. That all changed however to my delight when she bought herself a pink V-neck T-shirt. I was thrilled and naturally tried it on the first chance I got, and I was totally in love! Pink was so fun and feminine, and I liked to pair it with a pair of my mom's jeans which featured pink rhinestones on the booty. It was a pink overload! Naturally I couldn't resist trying on the outfit again and to my delight the jeans still fit!

This outfit is actually one of the reasons that I love V-neck shirts so much! I have since gone on to add recreate this outfit with clothes in my own collection!

Purple Nighties: So obviously I'm a fan of full slips and satin things, but where did that love start? Well other than being inspired by other wonderful crossdressers, I was first exposed to silky fabrics from my mother's nighties. She had them tucked away in a the back of one of her drawers, so she obviously hadn't worn them in a long while. Even though she certainly didn't derive any joy from them anymore I certainly did. I loved how the silky satin like material felt on my skin and the purple colors were a fun bonus. Getting to wear them again all these years later was a fun treat, and I found them right wear I left them in the back of the drawer. It's interesting to think that the last person to wear these was probably me!

    I had a fun little stroll down memory lane trying on all of my childhood favorites from my mom's wardrobe. It's so interesting to see how my early experiences defined my fashion choices now! Now that I'm older however and have plenty of clothes for myself, I really don't see any reason to find myself in my mom's closet again. I'm glad I now have these photos to fondly remember my early days and share them with you all, but it's time to move on and continue building a wardrobe of my own!

-Carly

Pantyhose Shopping Spree at Walmart

 Hello There,

    I thought I'd share a fun little story about a little shopping spree that I went on recently. So it's no secret that I love pantyhose, and after years of searching I finally found the perfect pair of pantyhose for me! I've always loved L'eggs pantyhose, so it was so satisfying to finally find the perfect size, style, and color for me! Walmart was always my go to shop for L'eggs pantyhose, but to my shock it seemed as though all my local Walmarts had stopped selling L'eggs pantyhose! They sold other brands of pantyhose, but not my precious L'eggs! It was a travesty! Just after finding the perfect pantyhose they were taken from me!!! Or so I thought.... 

    I was visiting some family about a couple months ago (I know I'm late publishing this), and I needed to pick up a few things at their local Walmart. Although I don't normally browse for girly things when visiting family, I was feeling a feminine urge and headed towards the women's clothing section. I rounded the corner and approached the underwear section, and to my surprise what did I see?! L'eggs pantyhose!!

    I excitedly ran over to the rack containing dozens of different L'eggs pantyhose products! I was overcome with joy and excitement! I was so thankful that my favorite pantyhose were still available in some places! I started by rifling through the rack to see what sort of goodies I could find!

    I started by trying to find my favorite style of L'eggs, Silken Mist Ultra Sheer Leg Pantyhose in my size of Q+. I ended up finding three boxes, with two pairs of pantyhose in each box! I was going to be fully restocked with my favorite pantyhose. But I was feeling inspired, maybe it was my overwhelming joy and excitement at finally finding L'eggs pantyhose again or maybe it was the sexy portraits of pantyhose clad legs on the side of the rack, but I wanted more! I ended up buying a four different colors and styles as well!

    In total I ended up walking out with seven different boxes of pantyhose, fourteen pairs total! What a great feeling it was, I've never been so proud and excited to check out at a Walmart LOL. More than anything it's good to know that L'eggs pantyhose aren't a product of the past. I still may find myself buying more than a few boxes of them if I come across another treasure trove such as this. But until then these seven boxes will have to do!

-Carly

Stealing a bag of my mom's Bras?!

 Hello There,

    I've got a story today about the time I ended up with a trash bag full of my Mom's Bras. During my junior year of college I started living off campus by myself in a one bedroom apartment. Which meant that I finally would have enough privacy to start dressing whenever I wanted. Of course I didn't initially have any clothes to wear, although that didn't last very long. My Mom was cleaning out her closet and planned on donating several bags of clothing to charity. For the most part nothing very interesting, some old jeans, coats, t-shirts, but the last bag was very interesting. It was full of old bras! As a bra lover I couldn't pass up the opportunity to claim this bag as my own. I told my Mom that I would be driving by the charity drop off and would be willing to take her thing for her. She thought nothing of it and handed all the clothes over to me. I did of course go to donate her clothes, but there may have been one bag I kept to myself. 

    I took my new bag of bras to my apartment at college, and would pack them away in as safe space in my dresser. During my early days of dressing in my new private apartment I would almost always be wearing one of these bras, many of my first major crossdressing milestones and early memories happened in these bras. The most momentous time for me while wearing these bras was actually the first time I did my makeup! So a lot of these bras will always be super nostalgic for me, because I was wearing them the first time I fully became Carly!

    In addition to wearing them when I did makeup, I also frequently wore them when I underdressed in public. A lot of thrilling and scary moments came while wearing them in public but all in good fun!

    Lastly when I completed decorating my princess bedroom, to celebrate I took pictures in my shiny blue bra! I'd say the smile says it all!

    Once I started doing my makeup fully I also started ordering clothes for myself, and that also meant ordering new bras for myself. I began to phase out the use of my Mom's bras. I'd still wear them every now and then, but far far less than I did at first. Just like when they were in my Mom's possession they had been replaced and fallen by the wayside. Still, when I had to purge my wardrobe at the end of college I looked down at these bras and smiled. What tremendous fun I'd had with them, and how many memories I made while wearing them! Thankfully I was able to sneak them out from my Mom's donations, because they were essential to my first days as Carly!

-Carly