Best Thursday Ending

I used two of my gift cards this past weekend and purchased much needed snow boots. Just try to find a pair of quality size 7 snow boots right now, totally not an easy endeavor. Much to my surprise, all my stuff was waiting for me at my doorstep when I got home from class. It kind of felt like a mini Christmas. Too bad I only just took down my tree a week ago.

I happily have warm waterproof winter boots, new tasty coffee, face wash and new make-up tools. In case you have never ordered from Sephora, you should reconsider online purchases rather than store ones. You get to pick out your samples online. Yeah, most of it is perfumes, but it is still it is fun to pick things out that I really want to try out. There are also codes you can put in to get even more samples, I now have some Bare Essentials powered. Coooool. :)

Can't wait to try out my boots tomorrow. The bus stop is a good 15 minute walk away with the snow, I hope my toes stay super warm.

Endless Possibilities

I've done zappos.com, aldoshoes.com and piperlime.gap.com. Shoe shopping online is an addiction and I have it bad. For every pair of shoes I keep from an order, I return at least 2. Just as I was ready to throw in the towel on aggressive online shoe purchasing, I mean how can a size 7 vary so much!, I came across endless.com.

For the last few months, I have been coveting a pair of English Riding Boots. But nothing ever seemed quite right. I scoured websites and stores for the perfect brown boot. Anything good was over $400 and anything under $100 looked cheap.

As I was looking through the endless website (which was somehow emailed to me with an online coupon...I would love to know how they got my email address. damn the man!) I saw Michael Kors riding boot. Immediately I had flashbacks to Lord&Taylor's recent shoe sale where I overheard a salesman talk about a Steve Madden knock-off of this very boot. He told this group of girls, that the Michael Kors boot was unbelievable but the Madden was a decent replicate at about $60 cheaper.

I saw that these boots fell at a price point just below $200. For knee-high leather boots, that is awesome. In general, I try to stay around $150 for boots, but I was willing to go a little more for a quality that would be above anything else I had ever own. Before I could even acknowledge this rationalization for the purchase, my fingers were clicking away and BOOM the boots were ordered.

These bad boys showed up 2 days later. I have to admit, they are a little tight in the toes and the ankles are a little stiff, but I think they just need some time to be broken in. Last year I got a pair of motorcycle boots that had the same issues and now I wear them almost every day. Everyone knows, sometimes fashion requires some suffering.

Can't wait for these to completely mold to my feet. Best guesses, these boots will be perfect in about another month. Yay!

Amazon is not so good at being subtle

Work is slow, I don't want to do my homework, so what do I do? I surf amazon.com to figure out what I didn't know I wanted and/or needed. Every so often I will check in and see what amazon recommends for me. As I was scrolling through the page, I noticed that this website seems to think my culinary skills are limited to one particular tasty treat.

Can you pick up on the trend?

I will say, this has inspired me to create a new tasty jiggly treat, as it has been MONTHS since the last batch. First I need to find an occasion that calls for them. Hmmmmm, you know, I am pretty sure playing the wii on a Wednesday night is a pretty special event. Let's go with that!

Sometimes You Just Need It Shortened

I rarely have to hem pants. For one, many of the pants I buy are just long enough so I don't look like a nerd when wearing flats. If I am able to find pants in long, they are labeled jeans that go with my 3-4 inch heels.

The problem comes when I find the perfect pair of jeans that could go either way. Like my Lauren Conrad matchstick jeans. When I tried them on in the store, I saw that they went perfectly with a pair of flats. Once I got home I decided to try some pumps with them and realized the look only worked if I cuffed them so they looked cropped.

I was at a crossroads. I can't bring myself to permanently alter them to a cropped length but I also don't want to have to fold them when ever I wear heels, because let's face it, that is more often than not. Thankfully Hem Gems have been invented.

These little buggers help to pin up your jeans with some adorable studs. They are only $20 for a set of eight. Depending how I feel at the end of the week, I might have to make a purchase. Normally I don't bother with anything that requires shipping charges, but here, I might have to make an exception.

Economic Crisis 101

This past weekend I went over to Newton for some light shopping with a few gal pals. While browsing through Anthropologie, I came across the lobster dress.

I love it. I think it is super cute. Personally, I don't care for the taste of lobster, but I have no problem wearing their image on my person. I wanted to show my co-worker the dress. She also grew up on the beach and loves all thing New England. When I went to search for it on google, one of the first images comes from the U.K.'s Anthropologie website. I did a double take, the dress is listed at £118.00! It is $138.00 here.

All I could think of was when I was in college and knew that the British pound was almost $3. I totally thought I stumbled upon the best plan ever, purchasing Anthropologie items and shipping to the UK for the fraction of the cost.

Then I googled the current conversion. £118.00 equals $173.89! When did that happen?? Apparently my knowledge of world economic changes comes from looking up dresses online. Eeep.

How old am I?

I have been an amazon customer since I was in college. Which means I have been actively ordering movies, books, cds, etc for about 8 years now. Amazon tries to suggest media that I might want to purchase, sometimes it is on target, sometimes it couldn't be more wrong.

Today, was a bad day for Amazon. The website wants me to go to prom...


I am super glad that Amazon is looking out for me and knows that if it is going to offer me a deal, it should be on shoes, but prom? Come on man.

While I did refrain from going any further from opening this email, it did make me realize I haven't bought a new shoe in almost a month. Which means I am due for something new. I have been looking for a good summer sandal (thinking of going for a wooden heel) and maybe it is time to be a little more aggressive.

Snippy comments make for sad customers

Customer service makes or breaks an experience. When I bought shoes from Nordstrom's I thought the department store was amazing. They were attentive and helpful. The service woman told me that if I ever had a problem with the shoes to come back and anyone would be more than happy to help me either return them or exchange them for a new pair. I had never heard of something like this as she let me know that wearing them around the city was not a problem at all for them if I felt dissatisfied.

The first night I wore out the shoes, I noticed that there was a small tear in the leather. Nothing too terrible, but it bothered me. Those shoes cost bank. Then I remembered what I was told and so I figured when I drove home for Easter I would stop by the new Nordstrom's and try out this spectacular service.

Ok, so the experience not so spectacular. The first shoe saleswoman, super nice. Complemented me on the shoes and went to find the manager. The manager took one quick look at the shoes and told me that the tear was my fault and that it would not have happened if I didn't trip or something. If she had said it only once, or maybe after, "sure let me help you" than maybe I would have felt more comfortable. But I honestly think she drove it home by telling me at least 4 times that it was my fault my shoes were torn. Then after making me feel terrible that I even brought them in to begin with, she scanned the barcode, let the receipt run, tore it off, and then slapped it to the counter announcing that they are completely sold out at all stores. It was a mortifying experience.

I had thought about shopping around for another pair of shoes since I was returning the ones I bought from piperlime (they were sadly defective) but this saleswoman made me feel beyond uncomfortable. I just needed to leave, immediately.

Basically, I think it will be a while before I attempt another trip to Nordstrom's. I don't like feeling like an inconvenience when I go shopping. Afterall, I am about to give the place my hard earned money, please be nice to me. Case in point, earlier that day I had walked into the GAP because I saw a huge sale sign, but then remembered that last time I asked if a pair of pants came in tall, the saleswoman looked at me with a "hell no" expression and told me I could buy them online (which meant I would be penalized with shipping costs because tall sizes can't be bothered to be kept in stock at that store...). With this in mind, I don't want to find something I love only to find out that it doesn't come in my size, so I just walked right out.

Ugh. I will get over this, eventually. In the mean time I will keep looking online for new shoes.

Kenneth Cole is Taunting Me

I have been flipping through magazines between study sessions this past week as a way to relax my brain. After all, one can only do so many sentence correction questions in a row. In browsing through pages of beautiful clothes and people, I paused on one of the new Kenneth Cole advertisements and immediately wanted to know more about the dress.


I think the dress would flatter my body shape, and even though my skin tone is no where near the tone of the model, I think the colors would still work for me. Given that the ad campaign refers to the internet and virtual states, I figured I could find out more on their website. For the next 25 minutes I became increasingly frustrated as I could not find the piece anywhere beyond the section showing the campaign. Why feature clothing that cannot be purchased?? It isn't as if this is a couture gown. It looks like something that is intended for the masses. Is it too much to ask for to know the price of dress that is probably out of my budget?

If anyone can find out more information about this dress and is willing, that would be amazing as googling "kenneth cole beige brown teal dress" came up with nothing useful.

JCrew, I am now a Fan

A little customer services goes a long way. I was thinking about my recent pants shopping experiences that I had at the mall. The last time I bought new work pants it was when I started my last job in February 2007. So yeah, I am due. My pants are all worn out and, honestly, a few sizes too big as I have lost weight and now, thanks to Clinton and Stacie, understand what "fit" means.

I figured I would go to JCrew and the GAP. My tall friends have said that they have been successful at both locations which made me feel better. I may have no problem finding and purchasing short sundress after short sundress, but pants simply make me nervous. I assume Lady Gaga feels the same way. So, I simply avoid the process as much as possible.

I think it is important to refer to the experts when shopping for something new. All I knew was that I wanted slim fit pants, but wasn't sure what would look good on my frame given that I do have a decent sized ba-dunka-dunk. Therefore, I hunted down a saleswoman at JCrew immediately. She was a little startled when I first asked her point blank to help me find pants, but became extremely patient. Turns out that my instincts were correct with what I had found.

I ended up with a pair of Stretch Twill Minnie pants that fit marvelously everywhere but in the length. They were about 3 inches shorter than I would have liked, and all of the saleswomen agreed. (I might have had a following at this point as I was wearing the Harajuku Lovers shoes) Since the store doesn't stock the tall versions, the saleswoman let me know they would ship me a pair FOR FREE directly TO MY HOUSE. How wonderful is that?!?!

I figured there was no reason to say no at this point. So, she brought me over a phone (with no dial) that was sitting in the middle of the store. All she did was say that she was calling from store number _____ and had an order for a customer she wanted to place. After talking for a few minutes, she handed it over to me so I could give my billing and mailing information.

The pants showed up at my house a few days later and I am just so happy. I love that the store was willing to go out of its way to get their product into my wardrobe. Later that afternoon I went into the GAP and had a similiar experience where the pants fit but were too short. This time, however, the sales woman told me to just go online and order them. When I got home I went to gap.com and found out that I would get charged $7 for shipping. I am sorry GAP, I am now a JCrew fan. That store knows how to treat a customer right and doesn't punish me for being tall. Service like that really does wonders for creating customer loyalty.

How RUDE!

Saturday I was on my way into the city to celebrate the aforementioned nuptials my phone rings. I was a little preoccupied with whether or not the sky was going to open up on me I was tempted to ignore it and just deal with voice mail when I get around to it. Which would probably be about a week later when I finally got around to listening to what had built up in my mailbox. But since I saw that it was from a number I didn't know, I felt like I needed to pick it up.

I am glad I did.

I have been waiting for pictures that I ordered from the kodak gallery (beta) website. They were from my trip to Alaska and fun pictures of friends for a wall collage. I got an email over a week ago letting me know that the pictures had been printed and stuck in the mail. Every day I raced to my apartment hoping to see something sitting outside my doorway. Nothing. Well, this phone call explained it all.

• Is this Ms. _____?
• Yes
• Sorry we got disconnected
• We didn't get disconnected. But this is Ms. ______
  
• We were just talking a moment ago and the line went dead.
• I'm sorry, but I was not on the phone. Who are you?
• I'm _______, with UPS. You were telling me that we delivered your package to the front entrance and we should have dropped it in the back.
• Oh. Oh! OH! I know what you are talking about. I ordered something that hasn't arrived yet. I have been waiting and there are different entrances. The delivery guy must have just gone to the wrong door. So what did the woman say she did with my package?
• Well she was yelling. She said she was you and very upset.

That was the bulk of the conversation. What kind of person yells at a UPS service rep and pretends to be the person on the label? I apologized to the rep saying that I would never yell at a call center person (I used to be one!) and please don't put me on the bad list there over at UPS.

My friends were appalled and then one piped up that maybe she just read my name off the package and the rep thought she was talking to me. Either way, she just put the package back in her front doorway so had the rep never gotten disconnected I wouldn't know it was sitting there.

At least the story ended well for me. I remembered as I was walking up to my entrance that I needed to turn back real quick and pray that the woman didn't distroy my stuff. It was there! Yay. Those pictures will be up on the walls of my place quite soon. I can't wait!

Getting my mom interested in woot.

So when I first came back from Alaska, I felt like I really needed to do something nice for my parents. They did pay for the trip. But at the same time they know that I have really no money, so it would have to be small gestures or else I think they would try to give it back. My father is really hard to shop for and so I usually fail when I try. But my mom is a little easier. Probably because she goofy like me. Don't get me wrong, my dad is very goofy, but he has a different way of showing it.

Anyway, my mom told us how after teaching for what seems like forever, RI is now changing the curriculum requirements for middle school. She now has to teach astronomy. But not astrology. At least it was added after the whole Pluto getting demoted from planet to celestial body. Hopefully, her textbooks are new enough they also only show 8 planets. I wonder what the new pneumatic is to learn the planets is now. I mean it is no longer true that My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. Maybe she served us nothing? How sad.

It just so happened that on shirt.woot.com they had a shirt out for sale called "You're not one of us anymore, Pluto". I ordered it for her and called to let her know something was coming in the mail her way. It was supposed to arrive the first week of September but I kind of forgot about it. But while we were talking on the phone today, the shirt came into my mind and I asked her if she ever got a shirt in the mail. She got so excited and asked if it was from me because there was no paperwork with it. The only sad thing was they sent her a kids size 10 rather than a woman's medium. In the end she has decided to email woot.com to see if they will do something for her. In the mean time she is deciding between ordering a bigger size on her own or going for the chemist. (see below) Which funny enough, was the daily t-shirt that had sold out the afternoon I got her the Pluto one. She was having a great time going through the site looking at all the shirts. I think she might become a woot addict. :)

First New Apartment Purchase

Packing had been on the calendar for today. With me going away next weekend, I had kind of hoped to get a bunch of my bedroom in boxes today. Of course the weather caused that plan to get smashed to pieces. Instead of reducing the clutter, I went downtown to have brunch and go window shopping.

Window shopping ended in real shopping. Yellow pumps have now found a home on my shoe racks and a few clearance shirts have made it into my drawer. But the best purchase was a set up of wooden cooking utensils complete with a cup thingy that holds them. Yay! Wicked excited to be living in my own place filled with my own stuff. I have such a long list of things I need still. Which reminds me, anyone have a couch they are willing to part with????

(picture is not of actual set)

Me: 1 Online Shopping: 5039458

I totally won this round. Online shopping has become such a quick and easy way to deal with stress and boredom lately. I got a series of emails from Aldoshoes.com advertising free shipping for any order placed by Sunday (aka yesterday). I had my eye on two different pairs of heels from their clearance section and would have saved SOOOOO much money purchasing them but I resisted. I need to get myself on a budget given that I am moving into my new place in about a month and need to be used to paying quite a bit more in rent each month, which means I will have quite a bit less to blown on whatever I feel like whenever I feel like I need a treat.



Imagine these in pink. They look pretty freaking amazing. I have actually even tried this on in the store. They are funky and flatter the calves nicely








I have actually posted a pic of these ones before when I was searching for THE SHOES. I have never seen them in a store and they look like they too could totally sass up a pair of jeans so fast! Oh well. The sale has come and gone, and I do not pay for shipping.



Let's see if I can be this strong in the future. Doubt it.