I got some sleep last night and am feeling much better today! Let me tell you it STORMED here last night, from about 8:00pm until midnight we had sporadic thunder and lightening, rain on and off but at about 10:00pm or so it RAINED! I mean it rained harder than I had ever heard it rain, the thunder shook the house and the lightening lit up the bedroom, it was amazing! I love nothing more than a good storm and we just haven't been graced with all that many in New Jersey so boy was I excited to lay there and listen to it!
They tore apart our front porch yesterday to replace the natural stone around the columns and I am very happy with how that turned out, we are still without banisters but I assume once it all dries they will be put back. The painters arrived at 9:00am, (MIRACLE) and said that their instructions for the day were to make me happy, how I love hearing those words! So they are working away as we speak and if all goes well everything should be done by the end of the day. Naturally we are having troubles getting another of our original colors so I won't necessarily assume everything will be done by the end of the day but we'll see!
I thought I would stop in today though and talk about something other than house stuff. It has been awhile since I have talked about what is going on with us and the house which at one point completely dominated my blog content but I don't want to bore you all; so today we are going to switch it up a bit and talk about my outlook on shopping for myself and where I tend to purchase most of my clothes.
Its funny how in the last few years where I shop and what I am willing to spend money on has completely changed, having said that one thing hasn't changed and that is my love of new stuff. I absolutely love to shop, I like new things and it doesn't even have to be anything big.. I get excited over a new lip gloss, hair ties even. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE new stuff. As you can tell I'm extremely hard to please! Ha!
My closet has always been expansive and although I love a good deal I use to be a lot more willing to spend any amount of money on something if I wanted it. You are talking to the girl who owns 9.. yes I said 9 Lululemon Scuba hoodies that go for $108.00 a pop! No shame here, none what so ever; those babies are comfortable and warm! I actually also have a special addition one that is my favorite that was $160.00 but I got it brand new with tags on ebay for $94.00.. SCORE! I don't regret these buys because one I absolutely love them, although 9 may seem excessive and with Lulu you know that you are paying for quality.
Can we be real here for a minute though? I find more in more in my shopping and perusing quality is dwindling in most places but the prices sure as hell aren't. Its really unbelievable to me how much people are willing to charge for the quality of the items they are providing, but I guess if people are willing to pay it.. I'm honestly not. I started to notice it first with American Eagle, in high school I shopped there all the time and don't get me wrong I still find things there but their quality just isn't the same anymore. Jason used to live in their Tshirts but now they are so flimsy and don't last there is really not point in spending the money because you know they wont last. You can buy a much better quality Tee at Hollister for the same price and have it for years.
I like quality stuff obviously but where do we draw the limit as to what is actually worth it and what isn't? I suppose part of the change in why I am not willing to spend a fortune on a sweater or whatever is because we have other priorities now, we have a mortgage and bills and that seems more important than spending $100 on a sweater (although everyone splurges occasionally). I love stores like Anthropolgie, they have GORGEOUS things but I would never pay the prices. I'm sorry I can spend $54.00 on a tshirt there or $3.00 on a Tshirt at Forever 21 and let me tell you its the same quality. A Tshirt is a Tshirt lets be real here!
Here's the thing. I like to have options so therefore I would rather spend less money on each item and have more things to choose from then spend lots of money on one item and have less to choose from. Most often new trends arise and people charge a fortune for them and we wear them a few times over the season and the next year the trend is completely different, so it it worth is to spend the money on something that most likely you wont love as much the following year?
I agree that some things are worth it, jeans... I am a jean snob! Let me tell you once you wear Silver jeans or BKE jeans you will never again wear American Eagle jeans. Having said that jeans last me FOREVER! I'm not hard on clothes really which is a perk of having so many they last forever because their rotation of wear is less frequent. So if I spend $100 on jeans I will have them for years and years because unless they don't fit me (like most of my jeans now sadly) they stay in good shape forever.
If I really love something but wont spend the money while its full price which is honestly the case with most things now I wait for sales, I wait for big sales like Labor Day weekend that just passed or until they go one sale to make room for newer merchandise. I'm not going to lie it sucks, when I want something I want it but when I get it on sale for significantly less than it was originally priced I feel great about it.
To each their own really, if you spend a fortune on clothes that's awesome! If money was no object I would fill my closet with everything on my Pinterest board and have zero regrets. Jason gets so irritated with me when he asks what I would like for my birthday or Christmas and I always say, clothes. Don't be fooled though my husband has a TON of clothes and is pretty particular about what he wears!
I have favorite stores, the Gap being one of them (do you even believe that they don't have one in New Jersey, I feel like that is absolutely ludicrous!!) I feel like the Gap's clothing is well priced for the quality they are providing, I love all of their clothing and trends they follow. I would say if I had to have only one clothing store that may just be it.
I do like Hollister I wont lie but I recently got quite a reality check. When we got home I was packing for what to take back for fall and winter and decided it was time to part with things and honestly I never feel like that. Basically I was making room for new stuff but I really had to get rid of a few things. I made a huge bag of clothes and decided that I would take them over to Plato's Closet before donating them to see if there was anything they would purchase. If you have never heard of Plato's closet it is basically a consignment store where they buy your used clothes and resell them. Well I had a lot of Hollister hoodies amongst other things and when I went back to see what they had decided to buy they said they were not taking the Hollister hoodies because they were junior items. Really? haha! I will admit the ones that I was trying to sell were from years ago but there was nothing wrong with them I just have a ton of hoodies and if I was going to make more room those were the ones I chose to get rid of. I would still buy a Hollister hoodie but that fact that they are considered juniors kind of make me chuckle and think maybe I need to rethink where I choose to shop for certain items.
Truthfully this summer I actually purchased a lot of items at Target! Their tank tops that I cant seem to find online but I know are now on clearance in store for $7.00 (originally $10.00) are my favorite! They are super comfortable and I absolutely love the fit, they had a great variety of colors and I purchased quite a few of them and plan to use them throughout fall and winter for layering as well. I purchased a maxi skirt which is not something I generally wear as I already have a lot of junk in the trunk and they tend to draw more attention to that than I care for, but I saw a black on at Target one day with a white Aztec print and for some reason decided to try it on and I couldn't love it anymore! Right now all of their maxi skirts are one sale online for $12.00 or under! Target truly had great fashion for women and as I said before a tshirt is a tshirt, when they are on at Target for $9.00 I get a few. I generally only wear tshirts to layer in the fall and winter otherwise all summer I sport tank tops therefore I am even more uninclined to spend a small fortune one them.
I don't feel that because I choose to be a little thriftier that I look sloppy or cant pull together a look, I truly think that you can find outfits just as good for less if you really try.
One thing I plan to do for fall and winter is to really start checking out more little privately owned boutiques because they carry a lot of unique and gorgeous pieces. There are a ton in Hoboken that Tanya and I venture to on occasion and there are a lot online. To stay up to date on what they offer and when sales are happening you can follow them on Instagram as well.
A few shops that I follow are:
- Kiki La Rue (not going to lie I had to unfollow them on Instagram because I wanted to buy everything.)
- Sugar Love Boutique (Right now use code "yellow" for 20% off your order thank you to Erin @ Living in Yellow
Just to name a few!
Alright y'all this has taken me hours for some reason and I'm not even sure if its going to make sense or come across like I wanted it to but here it is. I truly believe its not where you buy your clothes its how you feel in them. If you can find a pair of jeans at Target for $20.00 and they make you feel like a million bucks, run with it!
I am off to see what the painters are up to, they should be done today hopefully (everything but the front door) and then I can spend my weekend cleaning up all the messes that have been made, I didn't bother going after them every night because lets be honest what was the point!
I hope you all have a great weekend, although it is humid as all hell here I plan to enjoy the weekend and hope the rain holds off!!
HAPPY FIRST OFFICIAL WEEKEND OF REGULAR SEASON FOOTBALL!!
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