Unlike years in the past, this one started without my wonderful friend, lover and husband Sharon. This year started out with a wonderful trip out to shop for more clothes to wear on yet another planned flower garden photo shoot with a close friend, Rob.

Rob and I pretty well started to talk about another photo shoot just after the last ones wonderful pictures came out. The date for the photo shoot is set at just over a two weeks away and Rob and I discussed making this one even better than the last one, and the only way possible, was to look at the gardens before the actual photo shoot. So with that in mind, one of the locations for the trip out with Rob was set, and some of the other locations for our trip took us to a wonderful new discovery.

In the Hamilton/Toronto/Burlington area, there is locations for charitable donations to be made, and they accept anything, from furniture to clothes to small appliances. Well, what they do with all of this donated merchandise, is turn around and sell it in a retail type of store, and the prices are out of this world. Imagine a skirt for $3, or a dress for $8, and a bridesmaid's dress for $18, and those prices are real. The stores are more like large garage sales, and all of the money raised at these stores goes to help the needy. The only downfall of these stores is the fact that you better try things on and then judge from that, rather than trying to guess and buy off the rack, take it from me, it is really tough. So with that in mind, what a great place for trying to find another bridesmaids dress for the garden photo shoot.

The bridesmaids dress that I was trying to find was going to be added to another four or five bridesmaids dresses that I managed to collect since the last photo shoot to provide the perfect clothes for the beautiful flower garden surroundings.

In the winter we had a temporary secretary that worked for our company and she was cute and about my size, and from time to time, she would wear this lovely little mauve leather skirt, and I was in love with the skirt everyday she wore it. I knew that one day, I would have one for my collection, and lone behold, last month, I found one on sale, and immediately bought it. I loved the colour and the style, but it was just a little too long, it was just below my knees, and I was hoping for one an inch or two about my knees, and lone behold, alterations at this store were free!. So after I measured out the perfect length and got the skirt altered to 17", 3 1/2" above my knees, just perfect for my petite body stature.

Continuing with the theme that I had last year when I went out, and that was short and sexy, the skirt was the perfect choice to be going out on the shopping trip with Rob. As always, the first trip out of the year I planned for weeks in advance, and after many, many different tops, I decided that if it was going to be warm, I would pick a silk flowered patterned top with traces of purple flowers in it, and if the weather was going to be cooler, then a purple matching sweater.

So thanks to the once again unpredictable weather of the Southern Ontario area, I found myself on the morning of the 19th, with the temperatures in the low 80's and the possibility of humidity taking the temperature into the 90's, I had no choice but to choose the silk blouse to go along with the short purple leather skirt!.

One of the other items that I found over the summer was the perfect thing for a woman that owns wonderful blouses and sweaters and needs to have the ability to wear shoulder pads under them. Of course, for those of us who have had to wear just shoulder pads attached to our bras, it can be quite the pain in the butt!, well, there is something that I found that I feel is long overdue. The piece of clothing incorporates and bra and padding all in one piece of lingerie and when worn under blouses or sweaters that need shoulder pads, it is perfect!, so under my lovely flowered satin blouse went my new piece of lingerie.

The morning of the 19th started out hot, and I found what it was like to put on makeup with the lipstick a little softer and warmer, and my skin a little bit sweatier than usual. It was wonderful to slip into my nude coloured pantyhose sans hair for the first time in the year and once again I loved slipping into all of my lingerie, and making my way to the makeup table. It was the first time of the year putting on makeup to go out in public, and I loved it very much, and found that it was like I have never gone away from dressing and putting on makeup. So like always, I picked my favorite colours, purple on the lower lids of my eyes, pink on the upper lids, black eyeliner, black mascara and my eyes were perfect. I did my blush light pink and decided that I would choose my lipstick colour a little darker than normal and decided on pinkish red, deep and rich.

With my makeup out of the way, I decided to slip into the clothes for the day, so I slipped into my flowered blouse, and my purple leather miniskirt, I loved the look as I looked into the mirror and I loved it even more as I slipped into my 3" black pumps, a simple string of pearls, a gold anklet, and a watch and bracelet. The whole look was finished off with a health spritz of perfume, and I was done, all I had to do was grab for my purse and wait for Rob to arrive.

Rob arrived and after exchanging cordial greetings, we slipped into his car and headed for the first of four stops for the day, and the first was a Goodwill store in downtown Hamilton. We arrived at the store and nothing spectacular happened, I tried on as many dresses I thought would fit and would fit the criteria of a bridesmaid formal. Unfortunately, nothing fit, and I started to doubt that I would find a dress that would fit, but I remember that we would have two more stops at Goodwill stores before the day would be over.

The second Goodwill store held more luck than the first and I found a bridesmaid's dress that fit, and it was light purple and I loved the style and look. I also found a lovely wool knit form fitting dress that fit like a glove and cost $4.99, and the bridesmaids dress, $15!, a wild find.

The next stop for Rob and I made was the flower gardens to see what it would be like for the photo shoot on the 7th of October, and what we found was an even better area than the one we visited the year before. Rob and I walked all over the gardens, up and down rock stairs, tough to do in 3" pumps, but I managed. Rob snapped pictures looking for various locations in the flower gardens, and tried a few photographic things, to get a feel for what would lie ahead when I would be posing in my formal dresses. Nothing eventful happened when we were at the flower gardens, a few people were around, but no one gave us a second glance, and we eventually left heading for the next Goodwill store in a nearby town.

The city of Hamilton is a typical blue collar city, and the next city we were going to was more of a white collar one, and the class of people was much nicer, and thus the Goodwill store was more interesting and classier to look around in. I found a few nice dresses that fit perfectly, and once again at $8 a piece, it was a wonderful find. Rob commented at the amount of lovely clothing for reasonable prices and made sure that one day he would find the time to come and spend much less than at a retail clothing store, besides, when you buy something at these stores, remember, it was been worn by a real woman before you, and to me that means something special.

After leaving the last Goodwill store, we made our way to a restaurant not too far away from the lake, and unfortunately we did not see that many other people as it was around 1:30pm, and the restaurant was not that crowded, but we dined and I made a couple of trips to the washroom, and nothing really major happened.

Rob and I continued back home and after filming all of the formals that I was going to be wearing at the flower garden photo shoot, part II, we looked over last years pictures for critique and then parted ways, looking forward to meeting for the flower garden photo shoot........

October 7th, 1994

Last year, on almost the same day, I went on a wonderful adventure to a public flower gardens in the city of Hamilton, the Royal Botanical Gardens, and with the help of a wonderful friend, and very talented photographer, Rob, the wonderful adventure was repeated.

Last year, Rob offered to take pictures of me in public, and I was modeling some of my favorite and wonderful formal dresses and ensembles, and Rob took over 250 pictures of all of these dresses and ensembles. Well!, the results were better than amazing, and Rob and I always talked about the possibility of another photo session.

Since the formal garden shoot of October 1993, a number of things have been added to my wardrobe, and they include two very sexy and wonderful velvet formal dress, and since some thrift shops have been displaying formal gowns and bridesmaids gowns for about $20 a piece, over the last year, about 4 formals were added in all. As well as the formal dresses, I also found a couple of wonderfully sexy and feminine blouses to add to the collection, as well as a couple of very sexy skirts. Well!, with all of those clothes and the offer of Rob to once again do another photo shoot, the event was set, and the details were left to be worked out.

As it worked out, in my ensemble of new pictures for the 2nd garden photo shoot, I came up with 10!, different outfits to wear, and would look wonderful in the flower garden setting. With all of those outfits, there was about 15 to 20 hours in preparation alone to make sure the changes happened quick and easy to maximize the amount of time that we would have for actual picture taking. After all of the packing and preparation, I managed to get 6 pairs of shoes, makeup, jewelry, purses and some lingerie packed into two bags, but the dresses in the way they were packed probably weighed about 50 pounds!. Rob was also busy and he was getting all of the photo equipment packed and all of the equipment ready to go.

As the 7th of October approached, winter did also, and the 7th of October in 1994 was a Friday, and on that Monday, the temperature in the day time never got above 50 degrees, and it was real chilly!, and I started to get worried about freezing in some of my favorite dresses during the photo shoot!. As the days went by and things got closer to the Friday, it was like a miracle happened, the temperature started to rise, day by day, and on the Friday the high predicted was 72 degrees!, a bit unusual for this area at this time of year but I took it!.

The morning of the big photo shoot came, and even though it was only the third time I put on my makeup for the season, I completed the job faster than I ever had before. I decided to enjoy my feminine image early, and just before applying my makeup, I slipped into a pair of nude coloured nylons, a silky and lacy pair of purple panties, one of my favorite comfortable bras, and a padded girdle. I then applied Obsession body spray to my entire body and spritzed myself good with Obsession perfume. To finish off my look for putting on my makeup, a lovely silk pink makeup robe, and I was all set.

My makeup was on before I knew it and had settled for a little more dramatic and sexy look for the photo shoot, black eyeliner, a little thicker than normal, emerald green on my lower lids, and dark pink on my upper. The blush I applied was a little more than I would if I was just going to work, but not over done, and the lipstick I chose for the first outfit I was going to wear to the gardens was the same lipstick as the colour I wore when I was married. Then after applying lipstick, I did my nails in one of my favorite colours and waited for my photographer Rob to arrive.

Rob arrived precisely on time at 9am, and after greeting, Rob helped me make a decision for my wardrobe and that was the pantyhose that I wore, as they were a little "off" being natural, and then after slipping into a new pair and a different manufacturer, Rob and I both agreed that the newer pair looked better and that is what I decided to wear. I then slipped in the first dress for the photo shoot, a bridesmaids dress that I found for $20 at a used clothing store. The dress was a dream, forest green, long skirt to the ankles, a semi-open back with two bows, and bows on the sleeves, and along with that dress, a crinoline, and finally a matching satin pair of 3" heels.

When I was all set, Rob helped me load up the car, and before we knew it, we were off and ready for another wonderful days' worth of picture taking. The weather was wonderful!, when we left the house the temperature was perfect, not a cloud in the sky, and I knew that things were really going to be great. When Rob and I arrived at the gardens, Rob made a quick trip to the washroom area of the gardens to make sure that the washrooms were open, and he arrived a few minutes later to announce that the washrooms were open and the gardens empty!, so I was really, really excited by then!.

Rob and I walked down to the washroom area of the gardens, he carried the clothes and I carried the bags, and between the two of us it was it was quite the chore. Once at the washrooms, I entered and set myself up in a rather large stall, and met Rob outside to start the wonderful adventure.

Rob took over 300 pictures during the day, and we went about everywhere in the park, and it was quite interesting, as it was such a wonderful day that there were many different people that showed up during the day, and most of them were women. As a result I was changing in the washroom, more than once I had women walk in and walking into other stalls and I knew they could hear me changing in and out of my clothes. One special occasion happened when I was changing into my sexy formal red velvet dress, and I came out of the stall, and I met two middle aged women one of them looked me over and stated "my how pretty", to that I replied, "thank you".

In about the third dress I was wearing, some of the grounds crew that was working around the gardens (and the grounds crew out numbered the guests most of the day). One of the crews consisted of a guy and a girl, and during taking pictures, I noticed that the female went into the washroom and came out. A few minutes later when were in one corner of the gardens, they came driving up and asked me if Rob and I would like a gate pass get his car when we left as we had a lot of outfits that we carried in. Well, I was thrilled and said that we were alright, and that is were we left it.

As the day wore on, we found that with the new gardens that we were in, and the amount of clothes that I was modeling, that we lost track of time and before we knew it, the clock was at 4pm, and we had a date set to visit my bridesmaid Rebecca at her apartment, which was just near my own home.

Well, we managed to wrap up as quick as possible and I finished changing out of my last dress of the day, and changed into my "going home" outfit, and for that outfit, I decided that I would dare to wear a skirt shorter than I have ever worn before. The skirt was a spandex style of skirt and fir like a second skin, and it was combined with a matching red jacket, black silk blouse and black 3" heels. As I said before, the skirt was shorter than I have ever worn before, and when the outfit was all put together, the skirt was only an inch or so below the bottom of the jacket and a good 4 inches above my knees!. As I left the change room and handed Rob the dresses that we carried down, I knew that he liked the way I looked and on the way back to the car, Rob took more pictures of me and finally, we ended the long and wonderful day and drove back towards my house.

We stopped on the way home to my friends house Rebecca's and it was quite exciting walking in public wearing a skirt that short, as I felt so sexy and wonderful. On the way from the parking lot to the front door of Rebecca's apartment, someone beeped their horn at me, and Rob said "you know that beep was for you?", I smiled and said that I knew, and I felt so wonderful.

After visiting Rebecca, Rob drove me around the block and we hugged to end another very wonderful day, and I thanked Rob once again for a wonderful and enjoyable day.