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.