where do you shop?

This is cross-posted from my tumblr, but I'm curious about what comments I'd receive, so it's worth a post here too.

I just came home from a massively uninspiring shopping trip. I haven’t really shopped in person (vs. online) in a LONG time, and I was kind of disappointed by what I saw. I know there are seasons of fashion that I absolutely love, and other seasons where I can’t find anything I like, but it was still a bummer. And the place I went only had the basic mall-y line up of stores: gap, banana, ann taylor… I probably should have driven the extra 20 minutes to Oak Brook for Nordstrom, J.Crew and Anthro. But I wasn’t looking to spend tons of dough either, so those three aren’t really where I wanted to head today.

I thought I’d see what others have to say though. Where do you shop? How are the prices? Does the clothes fit well? What do you like about it?

Also, mini pet peeve: when salesclerks offer outfit suggestions. “That would look great with black pants.” Really? What an exciting choice.

fall TV

Next new blog topic. . . new TV shows for the fall!

Of course, at the top of the list is the new Project Runway and Top Chef. Maybe it's the fact that I've been watching both of these shows for so long, but I feel like it's obvious that there are maybe 4-5 really decent contestants and everyone else is just destined to get kicked off. Top Chef this season especially. I mean, there's the two brothers, the one chick, and the beardy red head guy. . . . who else? It seems like they all kind of don't have it together.

And I'm enjoying Project Runway, but there is not a single person that stands out to me. It always seems to get more interesting once they're down to 6-8 contestants though.

Since LOST isn't on until next winter, I don't have too many other shows I'm really invested in. Biggest Loser started this week, which is my one big mainstream guilty pleasure TV show. And 30 Rock! That quickly became my new favorite sitcom last season. And we get to see what's up with Jim and Pam and little Jim or Pam Jr.

I'm definitely interested in the new show Community, since it features my Friday night clip show host crush Joel McHale. I didn't have a lot of hope for it, but after seeing the first episode tonight, I was pleasantly surprised.

It's Joel! And the guy from the hilarious phone commercials about butt dialing. Hooray.

Booted

Since you're in such suspense about this topic, and it's obviously one of the biggest issues in my life right now, I'm going to kick off my blogging with. . . . boots!

(Katie, this one's for you. :) So glad you get how huge this is. )

I had been visiting the Frye For-the-Ages boots on the anthro site for over a month, kind of waiting to see if I ever didn't really like them. But no, the love just kept growing. So a few weeks ago I decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

AND. They were sold out in my size. Oh, and also my alternate size up. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? (all caps definitely called for on this occasion.) I seriously almost cried. Then I felt kind of stupid, because they're just boots, but whatever. I was sad.

After a few days of mulling it over, emailing an anthropologie sales rep (helpful but not with the answer I wanted) and googling every possible combination of Frye, for the ages, boot, and size 7 (and coming up with nothing) I found a more than suitable replacement from Zappos. Oh zappos, with your saved credit card information and free shipping, you make it so easy to spend a ton of dough.

I ended up with these, the Frye Jane 14 stitch in "Vintage Brown." The picture really doesn't do them justice, because they look kind of black here, and they're really a nice distressed chocolate brown. And the more I look at the photos, they're almost exactly the same as the others, it's only the color that's different. I am so happy with them. For one, they smell amazing! Really leather-y and rich. They're so well made, too, which they should be for the price I paid. I definitely look forward to wearing them for years and years to come.

The second big heartbreak about my boot saga is, I swear the day I got these in the mail was the beginning of our streak of 80+ degree days again. So, the boots have not really made an appearance in real life. Can't wait though.

Seriously, HOORAY. This is one of the biggest purchases I've made in a while, and it feels so nice to treat myself.

9/9/09

Nine things I promise to blog about in the next two weeks:

(because I started to blog about all nine of these and realized it was way too long for one post)

1. Boots

2. TV shows

3. Kids spaces (interior design)

4. Eating right

5. Tomatoes

6. Family

7. This blog

8. New art!

9. My David. Of course!

Maybe I should do this more often to keep me on track. I'm a bad blogger, I know. 

wishlist 09

yay, fashion post!

Last year I missed new fall clothes because I was a big preggo. So it's been two years since I've been allowed to get into fall fashion. This year I'm pretty excited about reinvigorating the wardrobe. 

I realize this sounds cliche to say, but somehow it's gotten through my head after years of watching What Not to Wear and reading fashion blogs, but. . .  I really need to focus on buying just a few really high quality things that I can wear for a looong time. That means resisting all the cheap, cute, but looks like junk after three washings blouses (h&m and old navy, I'm looking in your direction. . . ) And I'm realizing now how important it is to buy nice clothes, because I have so little time in the morning to decide what to wear.  If I only have nice things to choose from, I won't have to spend my precious time freaking out about something looking old or worn or unprofessional. 

So here's my basic list for this year. Frankly, it's more of a pipe dream list than anything else, but maybe it will keep me on track when I'm spending a little money in the next few months.

1. The boots! Of everything here, I think these have the highest chance of actually being bought. I've wanted a pair of Frye boots for forever, and when I saw these on the Anthro website I knew they were It. A great leather knee high boot, with a mid heel, kinda western but not overtly cowboy-ish. Perfect. 

2. A nice jersey dress, for work and church. I like this BCBG dress from Nordstrom but basically, I'm just looking for anything similar. I like this color, the draping, and the long sleeves. I just need something easy and flattering. 

3. New blazer. This one is from J.Crew but I'm on the lookout for other options. 

4. Gold Cuff bracelet. I first saw this one here. This item wins "most likely to be bought at Target" since I never buy nice jewelry. I tend to lose it, or lose interest in it, so it's better to buy the $12 version. 

5. Plaid shirt from Boden. This one has the perfect color combination, and it looks like it'd be appropriate for work and bumming around.  It also reminds me of something I would have worn with Converse  circa 1994. But that's okay, right? Fashion, so cyclical. 

6. Citizens of Humanity Ingrid Jeans. Ever since I was pregnant, I promised myself I'd buy a new pair of nice jeans when I finally lost all the baby weight. I'm not quite there yet, but I want to keep my promise to myself; it's a nice motivator. A lot of people freak out about the price of designer jeans, but I've found that it's totally worth it. I had a pair of Sevens I wore just about every other day for years, they held up so well and were super flattering, so i figure a hundred plus bucks well spent. 

So that's it! This was super fun for me, and I do feel like it's helpful to reinforce to myself that quality is so much better than quantity. I can see myself wearing any of these things a few years from now. I should probably print this out and bring it with me when i shop to make sure I listen to my own advice though. :)

Mid Summer Update 2009

We have a six month old now! He's over 20 lbs, babbling away, starting to scoot around (only backwards, hasn't figured out forward movement yet) and, as always, is so sweet, happy, a good sleeper. . . we're amazingly blessed. Every morning we have a nice cuddle and after work we like to sit on the front step and watch the world go by. They're my favorite parts of my day. 

We go on family walks a few times a week.

We've had our first visit to the park. 

A morning at the county fair. 

And a great long weekend in Iowa at my parents house. Relaxing for me, totally fun for the grandparents, and hopefully fun for David too. 

My work continues to be stressful. There are rewarding moments, but it's been a challenge. I had to go into the city for some work events a few weeks back, and it was nice to have a chance to wander around the lakefront by myself. Beautiful Chicago.

I can't believe it's almost August. I feel like we've had some nice summer moments though, so that the months aren't passing by too rapidly. Life with a six month old is pretty sweet, so I'm just trying to enjoy every day. 

long weekend

If every weekend was three days long I'm pretty sure my life would be perfect. 

We've had a nice time so far these few days. Even though the fourth was rainy, it cleared up for most of the important parts: the parade in the morning and the fireworks. David slept through most of the parade, despite every single noisy float/band stopping right in front of us. Oh, to sleep like a baby. What he did see he seemed to enjoy. 

(Sidenote: David's getting HUGE. Almost 20 pounds already, can you believe it?)

Later we had some friends and Mike's family over for dinner. It was fun. I have to admit though. .  the part of the evening I enjoyed most was when everyone went to the fireworks and I stayed home with a sleeping David and the dog. Now that I'm a mom, I'm finding that I have very little quality alone time. As much as I love my husband and baby, sometimes it's nice to just be by myself. So after everyone left last night, I put the ipod on shuffle, cleaned up the house, caught up on folding laundry for the first time in months, and generally just enjoyed the solitude. The fireworks go off only a few blocks from our house, so near the end I walked out onto the front sidewalk and caught a glimpse of a few. That was enough for me.