Old Navy is Bottom-Tastic!

First A Little History...

      

Over one year ago I joined a product introduction site called Crowdtap.

Crowdtap is a large internet focus group forum that liaises with
many different brands and companies in an effort to test and market new products/services of various and sundry types.

Brand actions I've been lucky enough to be chosen for include:
OldNavy, Nintendo Wii, Woolite, Listerine, MAC Cosmetics, Ricola,
Bacardi Rum, BMW and many, many more!

Over the past year and a half or so- I've had so much fun trying new
(Free! Yah-FREE! No gimmicks or catches- I swear!) things and throwing sample
share parties! In exchange for consumer feedback to better their products and
innovative new marketing ideas- brands/companies offer free product to Crowdtap members. If you are willing to participate with the utmost honesty (CT clients want to hear the bad along with the good!) and earnest exuberance- Crowdtap and their clients will also award you points, stars and TopAward prizes. All of which will help you to
be awarded more product opportunities in the future!

I should mention that points have the added benefit of acting like funds for the
Crowdtap Store. The CT storefront offers gift cards or merchandise from various
e-retailers such as Amazon, Dermstore, Shoebuy, Vitacost and more! You may also
use points to make charity donations! If that sounds like something you'd be interested in- Don't wait! Click on the Crowdtap TapIn Button I've provided above and join the
fun!

  Old Navy Bottoms Bonanza Party!

Crowdtap OldNavy Style Council Party 

For my last Style Council get together I had decided to share the coupons with four people (instead of keeping one for myself) and invite one more person (Steph) who just happened to have some SuperCash to spend. Originally brought the total of guests to 6- but Jessica had to cancel at the last minute. Such a bummer! Jess usually injects a lot of fun into get-togethers and I think everyone here at Convozine and on Crowdtap would agree. Hopefully you'll get to 'meet' her on the next share! That left Rikki (as well as her kids Brendan and Lily), Amy, Stephanie, Kandis and myself.

Attributing new meaning to "Fashionably Late" haha... I got a late start- AGAIN -which I swear is a family curse when it comes to shopping for clothes. Steph, Kandis and I carpooled to save on gas. Once we had arrived at Old Navy I quickly realized that choosing to shop during SuperCash and on a Saturday may not have been the best planning on my part. Giving the LOADED parking lot one last dubious scan we headed in. Thankfully everyone else was a tad late too- and we somehow managed to arrive at Old Navy first- thus my tardiness went mostly unnoticed.

Amy was the second to arrive, and Rikki along with her daughter Lily and son Brendan arrived shortly thereafter. We all gravitated toward the shoes first. There were SO many people at Old Navy that day that it was a tad difficult to navigate the crowded aisles as an entourage.When we made it to the sandals Amy and Rikki took an instant liking to the white pleated platform wedges.

Steph thought the blue was amazing but couldn't find her size on the lower shelves. I took a look around the store for help but it was taking far too long because our ON Staff was overrun with customers. So instead of waiting... GoGo Gadget Lily to the rescue!

We then migrated to the other shoe aisles- a period during which Rikki, Lily and Brendan mysteriously disappeared and re-appeared like a trio of silent wraiths more than once startling the bejesus outta me. By the time we departed from shoes we had collectively snagged 10 pairs of new ON kicks. Two pairs of White pleated platforms, one pair of blue pleated platforms, one pair of blue green canvas strap wedges, one pair of black double cuffed sandals, one pair of gold boat shoes, one pair of NEON coral t-straps, one pair of animal print cross wedges and two pairs of classic flip flops in Neon Pink Drink and Blue Glare!

It would have been more- but for some reason availability of printed flip flops was nonexistent. (Boo! I'm still a tad upset at this because I really wanted to get a pair each of the paisley white glitter and Bora Bora logo style. I haven't been back yet to look for them- but hopefully my OldNavy will have some in stock when I finally do make it in to shop!)

We then headed off to check out skirts. Rikki and Amy pulled several similar floral choices. Kandis made a vague gesture and mumbled something about jeans meandering off towards the denim section. Steph turned around while Amy scanned the long peasant style skirts and was excited to see that ON had one neon chevron striped maxi dress left (oddly hanging in this unlikely location) and that it was in her size! "OMG! I can't believe it- yay! Dibs!" She exclaimed as she tossed it into our cart.

Glancing at the dressing room area and seeing it was PACKED we decided to wander a bit more and see what else we could find of interest instead of waiting in the LoooooNG line that had formed. Steph spotted the AWESOMELY bright french terry hoodies and chose both the Surf Malibu and the terry loop in Spitfire. (She ended up leaving the Spitfire behind and regretting it later... kinda like buyers remorse in reverse.)

Kandis rejoined us toting dark denim jeans in both Diva and Flirt styles as well as a pair of coloured denim capris in Avenue Pink and several clearance tops. Rikki disappeared AGAIN. At about 30 minutes absence I began to wonder if she hadn't left altogether without telling me. And were it not for Brendan's penchant to swish at the skirt of my sundress or Lily's sudden burst of laughter while adding a pair of Black Jack Bermuda welt pocket shorts to the cart mix- I might have gone out to the parking lot to check for the The Amazing Vanishing Rikki for the third time that afternoon.

Having canvased the store for everything we were after (and then some!) we got into the (thankfully much shorter) queue for dressing rooms. Once everyone was situated in dressing rooms I took the opportunity to "tweet live"- which as it turned out... Didn't. Turn out, that is. I am not sure if something was up with my phone, if it was just me having a case of the dunce-techs or if Twitter's beak was glued shut at that moment- but I couldn't manage to get a peep out let alone a tweet. After about 30 different tries in various store locations and one serious case of HOT Frus-trA-Tion!!! later, I gave up on live tweeting. (I found out after the party that at least one tweet managed to make it into Twitland. So yay? (halfhearted woots here...)

Defeated, I shuffled my way back to the dressing stage. Rikki was the first to emerge from the dressing rooms wearing ON's tea length swing skirt in Gray Floral along with the pair of white pleated wedges she had chosen earlier. I LOVED the look but she wasn't too thrilled with the skirt- and before I could blink the chance to snap a decent pic- back into the dressing room she went. (So not so great pic of my fave look on Rikki here- but it looks fab right? SOMEONE KNOCK SOME SENSE INTO HER! Right?!? I mean, seriously!) Quickly on the heels of Rikki's exit was Amy's entrance in the maxi stripe skirt in yellow. Not to be, the door was soon closed on that style because the consensus deemed the length too odd on her 5' 11" (pffsh 6') tall frame. While I discussed the length issue with Amy, Kandis poked her head out and repeatedly asked for some help on getting the next size down in the Diva jean- nearly to no avail since the store was still a MADHOUSE. I offered to do it just as she finally managed to snag the attention of an employee. The ON attendant ran off like a gazelle to grab what she needed. I took that second to speak with Kandis about the Avenue Pink Capri- because we had earlier discussed the choice believing it would be a very chic and trendy thing to add to her wardrobe. She informed me that they were WAY to snug in the leg and WAY too loose in the waist. This disappointed both of us because it pretty much told us that no matter which size she tried the style was not going to work on her shape.

Kandis here in her final choice of Flirt Jeans and Greenblue canvas wedge

The second the woman who was helping Kandis returned with her new sizes- Steph cracked her dressing room door and whispered, "Fair, Faiiir- could you come in here for a sec?" She had the coveted neon chevron striped dress on- but looked uncertain. "Does this look like a crazy-ass striped nightgown on me?" She asked worriedly. "The print is fun but the cut is so puh-laaaain." She whined. I couldn't help but laugh at her description- "NO!" I said- and laughed some more... probably a little too loudly for the close confines of the dressing room. She still wasn't sure so I coaxed her a slight bit out of the room to get the opinion of the rest of the gang- who agreed with me. "But what about the neckline?" She asked again- "I'll have to wear something underneath it- I mean I don't have a problem with showing cleavage- but this much?" She pointed to her chest. "NO way!" I insisted that it would be okay and that we could augment the dress later to fit her better. At which point she lamented, "Why couldn't they have made the top of this like they did the plus sized version? It's way cuter and wouldn't have had this exposure issue. Meh." She whipped around, darted back to the safety of the dressing room and smartly shut the door. Though she did buy it- suffice it to say I have no picture of her in said dress in the wake of 'Cleavage-gate'.

dodododo... waiting... more waiting... more of Brendan swishing past the skirt of my dress on purpose and shooting me mischievous little smirks...

Rikki came out again- this time in the Black Jack Bermuda shorts. They were far too snug in the knee for her liking and the welt pockets stuck out on her hips so she nixed them.

Amy opened the door wearing the pleated gauze mini skirt in Electric Cantaloupe. The colour of which was absolutely lovely against her very fair skin. But since Amy is willow slim and so VERY tall the skirt seemed to poof out much too much like a ballerina tutu for her liking.

Waiting some more... taking in the entertainment of Lily attempting to entertain Brendan... waiiiiiiting...

Finally Rikki strolled out wearing the exact same skirt as Amy had (the gauze mini) minutes earlier- which obviously fit her teeny tiny (5' 2") frame differently than it had Amy's. "I love this!" She beamed.  "The only thing that would take it over the top- would be if it had pockets! Whatever, I'll add them later!" She waved her hand at it like it was nothing and went back to trying her selections on.

Stephanie came out in the Malibu hoodie- which she loved and decided to buy with some of her SuperCash.

Amy swished out next sporting the hot-orchid flowered ruffled maxi skirt in Almond Butter and (nearly) matching classic flip flops.

Adding her agreement to mine that the fluro-sherbet colours of the hoodie suited Steph very well.

Steph claimed that she didn't end up finding any bottoms that pleased her, mostly owing to limited size-availability, particularly in the fold-over jersey skirts. She was very disappointed because she's been dying to get her hands on this item in Pink Icing Neon and/or Bright Nite. So she decided to give the bottoms half of her coupon to Rikki for a second skirt. For which Rikki chose the yellow striped skirt that

Amy had rejected earlier...

At this time it became obvious that the staff were getting antsy for us to move on. I could tell that my trying to take pics was getting on their nerves and I couldn't exactly blame them. There were so many people it was difficult to have enough time in any one space to take pics comfortably. So I decided to stop photographing and take pics of Kandis and Steph's OldNavy finds later.

After everyone finished trying stuff on and had made their selections we headed out towards the checkout... yet another LoooooNG line greeted us. Because waiting didn't exactly thrill us- we began to peruse the accessories section.

Since I was personally low on cash- but couldn't bring myself to leave ON empty handed... (shifty eyes) I bought (ahem, Steph bought) myself a pair of ON blush framed cat eye sunglasses. Stephanie and Kandis went gaga over the look the instant I put them on and exclaimed, "You absolutely MUST get those!" Which lead to the rest of the group trying them on. Well, all except for Rikki who had once more performed her disappearing and re-appearing act on us like some kind of OldNavy NinjaShopper. Amy was next to don the sunglasses at which point Steph said to Amy "They totally make you look like a cat!" This confused and amused Amy until she looked into the mirror and, giggling her nervous Betty Rubble giggle, agreed, "Oh, they do!" Then Kandis put them on and we all about died laughing. Although she is adorable,

because Kandis has HIGH cheekbones they didn't sit well on her face AT ALL. Cute but kinda bug like... hehe.

As previously stated they did look quite nice on moi ... And because Stephanie had kindly offered to buy them for me (aw.. isn't Stephie sweet!)  thus making sure I'd have a new favourite ON accessory to add to my spring wardrobe- I didn't leave empty handed after all!

 Once the lines had shortened significantly- Check out went smoothly. 

At the exit we all smiled at management and waved our good-byes to the friendly staff. Stepping off the curb into the early evening sun, I slipped on my new Old Navy sunglasses as we headed off to our next adventure... My tum tiger grumbled. "Dinner anyone?" I queried.