Let's Coffee Date :: ThredUp

Wanna go on a coffee date today?  I'm inviting you to join me.  We're going to Romolo's (trust me on this), and here's how its going down.  

First, we'll plan on 9A, but then I'll text you at 8:57 when you're sitting in the parking lot and it'll read "Leaving now, little late".  Unless we're besties, in which case it'll just read "Magagnotti Time" which means the same thing.  But I'll get there and then we'll order after hugging it out (I am a bit of a hugger, once you know me.  Consider yourself warned.  That is, unless I get a really strong "I'm not a hugger" vibe off of you, in which case I respect your boundaries until after the first bottle of wine.  Just sayin'.).  You'll go first, early bird and all that, and you'll probably order an actual coffee with some shot of syrup or whatever because you're a real grown up and then I'll step up and get a half-coffee half-chocolate because I'm a fake grown up.  I do not apologize for this.  We could order pastries too, except they don't really have them, but the hot coffalatte is so delicious that I don't want for anything more.  If you think you might, pack a Clif bar.

So anyhow, we get our drinks, and sit down on the bright red leather couch, because we're friends, see, and friends don't sit at tables to hang out unless there are dishes to eat off of or diagrams to consider.  Sometimes there are diagrams.  Don't judge.  Anyhow, we couch it up and then we chat.  I tell you about moving and Handsome's love/hate with his job and how when we told RG to eat her chicken, she made "the sound the chicken makes" except it sounded like a bear going "bawk bawk" and I laughed so hard, she's fabulous.  And you can tell me things too, because I've got to take a in order to properly sip my drink, and you get the floor.

So what do you tell me?  No really, whats going on with you, fraynd?

I also want to say, on this coffee date, that if you notice that my jeans are adorbs, or that my shirt seems new, you might get me started on a tangent and then you won't get to pipe up until I'm done.  Because yo - I've got a new crush, and its on ThredUp.

I love cute packaging.
They don't have to do it, but its just a little something extra, just for kicks.

You know about my addiction hobby called "online shopping" (long "o").   You're also aware that I don't enjoy malls, hate not finding things after putting in the effort, and have a very low measure for what I think clothing should cost - we agree on this last part, as $120 for jeans is RIDIC.  We've also talked about that whole conscience issue with ethically produced clothing and waste and the environment and... basically, how I overthink all of the fun out of clothes shopping most of the time and sometimes make you overthink and how you hate me a little bit for it.

But then I surprise you with one of Romolo's chocolate covered strawberries and we're good again.

So after you throw out an innocent comment about some article of clothing I am wearing and I am set loose to jabber on about my new favorite online store, here's what I tell you:

I love ThredUp because...

1) I can shop at home in the evenings when RG is in bed and I don't have to worry about naptimes or babysitters or wearing pants, etc.  (I don't worry about me wearing pants.  All babysitters must wear pants.)

2) The shipping is free provided you spend over $50.  If you spend less, its something like $3 for the first item and $1 for each item after.  Basically, you're charged for the actual amount it costs to ship stuff.  And returns?  Well, I'm sending some stuff back this week - FOR FREE.  This is the holy grail of online shopping, my dears.  Of course, I'm sending stuff back because I ordered 12 pairs of jeans last week, because I have a hard time finding stuff that fits, and maybe I got a little carried away... But you don't judge me because, duh, the strawberry!

3) Variety variety variety! You know how I hate having to go to all of the stores to see all of the different brands, and you hate it too.  So when I tell you that ThredUp lets you choose the brands you want to see, filter them by size, and only look for the pieces you're looking for, well, you think you might love them too.

And then, then I drop the bomb on you.  I tell you that I do solemnly swear that all appropriately washed clothing purchased from ThredUp will not shrink, but you don't believe me.  You think the obscene number of chocolate covered strawberries I've been consuming (declaring them "breakfast fruit) has gone to my head.  But then I tell you the secret - your clothes won't shrink, because they've all already been washed.  

That's right!  ThredUp is an online consignment-ish store.  You can buy new to like-new clothing and the quality is superb!  And the prices, mylanta, they're fabulous.  Citizen of Humanity (Anthro brand) jeans for under $40.  Gap jeans, look like new, $14.49.  Even all sorts of brands that I'm not cool enough to know about, I can happen upon them and fall in love, all for up to 80% off of retail.

As you finish your coffee and chocolate-covered blueberries (they're organic, its okay!), you tell me that you'd prefer to wear new clothes.  And I tell you, they look like new.  Maybe as though you've owned them for a month, worn them twice.  You can do like I do and just pretend you lost them in your closet and just now re-found them.  As I was trying some on, Handsome asked "So, how are these 'used' when they're new..." because he thought they were new... even though they're not!

So now you're hooked, high on caffeine and a sugar buzz, and you want to go shop for some of these barely-used clothes, too.  It is at this point that I make you swear to wait until I email you, because if you use the link I send you, you'll get $10 off any purchase, and so will I.  And then I'll suggest that you use the coupon code SAVE20 to get an extra 20% off of your order, because *MWAH* I just love you so much.  And then, then, if you find you like them and want to order again later (or for your children, because they've got the cutest children's clothes), I tell you to go through ebates, because then you'll get 7.5% back with every order, using my link or not.

Whew.  Aren't you glad you liked my jeans?  And ate some strawberries with me?  And sipped the coffee and sat on the red couch and just chilled, even though I was running late?  

<3 M.

What is a Capsule Wardrobe?

You guys.  Seriously.  I just found something that I'm sure is not new and that I'm sure you have a pretty good chance of already knowing about, but that I didn't know about and that I think might just change my life, kind of like the way popping real popcorn in the microwave did.  I know.  Its that serious.  I wouldn't get you all wound up for nothing.

Two words: Capsule. Wardrobe.  Now, at first blush you might think that its a magical thing, like a tiny capsule that you carry around in your pocket that allows you access to your wardrobe, should you have, say, a malfunction of sorts.  Like, hypothetically, your girl-child wrestles the sqeezeable baby food pouch out of your hands, smashes down with all of her might, overflows her mouth, decides it was a bad idea, and then promptly ejects the food from her mouth, onto your shirt, in the middle of the restaurant.  Hypothetically.

But no, its not magic, although it might be something close.  I did not come up with this idea, but I was reading over at Woven and she said she heard about it from some other chick, who, upon closer inspection, has a blog called Un-Fancy, and I immediately put her on my "people to meet in real life and be friends with" list, right up there with Shannan and Kate and the inventor of milk chocolate (have I mentioned Lent is over Thursday night? No?).

via

Here's the nutshell - you pare down your closet.  37 items, to be exact, and then you wear those 37 items with all of the extra pieces of flair that your heart desires (mine desires next to none, but maybe that will change with time) and you rock it, for the season that you're living.  Like, "spring" season, not "my baby won't stop throwing food on me" season.  Just so we're clear.  Anyhow, you have a limited wardrobe, (a "capsule" of a wardrobe, if you will) and it makes your life better.  You only keep items that you absolutely love.  This is huge for me, because I have a moderate number of items that I have just because I feel like I should be wearing them, and then I wear them and feel uncomfortable and then I change out of my nice-even-if-its-not-"me" shirt in the middle of my daughter's birthday party and look like a slob in an old 5K tee. Hypothetically.

So anyhow, you can read more about it here.  I'm going to do the closet purge/state-of-affairs thing this week sometime, and I'm going to show you what I kept.  And then you can tell me what you think, and I can say "sailboat don't care" and keep it anyway.  Want to do it with me?  Are you in?  C'mon!  It'll be fun!

<3 M.

Dressing Girls Is Hard

I'm going to share a personal shortcoming here, so please be gentle with me.

I'm a terrible dresser.

I would say that I can do alright for myself if I'm wearing a dress, but apparently, as I've recently been informed, you need accessories if you really want the whole "pulled together" look, and I SO don't do accessories.  Not belts that aren't designed to hold my pants up, not bracelets with no sentimental value, not hoopy earrings or clutches or ... I can't even think of another accessory.  Are there more?  OH!  Scarves.  No scarves.

True story, I recently sent my one accessorish scarf to my 6 year old niece for her birthday, because I have owned it for 18 months and worn it once, and that time only to cover up my bra straps (read: wrong).  I don't know how to wear it, and I don't know if I can feel like me while wearing it, and so I forgo it.  If I then had an intentionally accessory-less style, I don't think it would bother me as much.  But I don't.  I'm just... sloppy, most of the time.  I'm working on it.

Babies:
If it doesn't look like they dressed themselves, you're doing it wrong.
At least that's my coping mechanism theory

Anyhow, since my oldest child (and only, but sometimes I like to refer to RG like that, just to keep myself on my toes.  I also hide vegetables from myself when I'm cooking, so... whatevs.) has now been outside of my body longer than she was in, my body has been doing crazy things, all sorts of changing.  Long story longer, I had to buy new clothes, so I ordered a bunch online, most of them ugly, returned nearly all, and still wear my old jeans and t-shirts.  I just... I don't do well shopping by myself, nor do I do well dressing myself even when I have good clothes in there.  

So that's hard for me.

But guess what?  I have a baby.  A baby girl.  GIRL.  And who's responsibility is it to dress her?  Not Riley's.  Nope.  She's pretty useless in that arena, although she has started pushing her little fist through the sleeve by her own power, so we've got that.  Nope, I've gotta dress her.  When she only wore onesies, that wasn't a big deal.  When she wore one-piece play-thingers, also not a problem.  But now?  Pants.  And shirts.  THE HORROR.  Because now my little girl is big enough to actually wear outfits.  Which means I have to actually put together outfits.  

This is a problem (see picture above).

Sometimes, honestly, I stress about it.  In the scheme of things, I know this is not big.  But since the base of  my hierarchy of needs is pretty well covered, I sometimes choose to concern myself with these types of things.  It doesn't help that the majority of her clothes are seconds (or thirds!) or thrift store finds or consignment sale deals.  So things don't match or "go" and I nearly always forget the accessories.  And while I get by just fine without them, my poor little beautiful baby gets mistaken for a boy more often than not if she's not wearing something pink and frilly.

I'm working on it.  We just bought her first two pairs of shoes.  SO cute.  And its cold(er) out now, and so I mostly remember to put shoes on her, which, since they're not really functional, are currently accessories.  I've also got a stash of headbands somewhere that I sometimes remember to add flair with.  But then there are days, like today, when I just leave her in her gender neutral pajamas when I take her grocery shopping.  Is that bad?  What if I was also in my pajamas still?  Better or worse?

Of course she got asked "how old is HE?" this  morning.  And when I call her "Riley" it doesn't do much to clear up matters.  Please don't misunderstand.  I don't mind.  I know that she's still in that could-go-either-way stage, and I've done pretty much everything possible to make it as ambiguous as possible, although not intentionally.

Dressing girls is hard.  Boys get to wear shoes, pants, and a shirt and call it good.  Jeans or khakis and done.  But I'm discovering that if I want to look nice, which I do, I have to put effort into it.  And if I want Riley to look nice, I also have to put effort into that.  Double effort! So I'm working on discovering and developing a style that still doesn't force me to wear scarves, but that is an actual style, rather than my current fallback, "clean".  At the same time, I'm trying my darndest to keep Riley clean, covered, and if then possible, cutely attired.  

Was this hard for anyone else?  Is this hard for anyone else?  Am I the only girl who doesn't/can't wear a scarf?  (Yes, Meghan, an infinity scarf is still outside of my comfort zone.  Do not give me one for Christmas.  Nor for Hanukkah.  I'll just send it to my next niece for her birthday).  Any tips for dressing children?  For myself, I've found some bloggers who talk about fashion-y things from a viewpoint I can understand, and so I'm watching them.

True story (#2) - I used to sit in my college classes and watch people.  If I noticed some girl wearing an outfit I liked, I'd write down what pieces she was wearing, such as "Dark jeans, navy ribbed sweater, dark brown army boots" to refer back to when I went shopping at some later date.  If its possible to approach something as "cool" as style in a more uncool fashion, I don't know how.  I suppose it goes without saying that when I say "college classes", they were math classes.  I nearly wrote "math & physics" but then I remembered I was one of two girls in the physics department, and I wasn't really feeling Corin's style.

So that's my issue of the evening.  I'm clearly not yet an adult, as I cannot dress myself successfully, yet I am expected to, and to dress another chickadee on top of that.  Discuss.

<3 M.

Other ways to use a T-shirt

I'm not a Large girl.

I'm not as small as I used to be, but that's not exactly what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about t-shirt size.

I'm just not a large girl.  And I don't really like to wear bigger shirts than necessary, not even for sleeping or working or stuff like that.

If anything, I tend to go too small, convincing myself that no one is looking and so, this one last time, I can wear my favorite shirt from 10th grade.  HA!

Oh Yeah.

Oh yeah, baby.  Thats right.

Its Friday night and its about time.  This has been finals week, and its been a long week.  I'm still procrastinating on my one project, so I'm not quite done.  But hey, its Friday!  Time for you know what...

Oh yeah.  Thats right.  The perfect outfit: my soccer champs longsleve T from high school, and Handsome's over-sized sweat pants.  Yep.  I'm staying in.  Don't try to dissuade me; I'll just ignore you.  Don't try to tempt me; you won't win.  Puppy-dog eyes?  Never gonna move me.  I've been moderately social today, I've yogged (like jogging, but with a soft "j"), I'm done.

I might clean up a little.  I might not.  I might finally finish procrastinating and get all of my finals done and over with.  I might not.  I might use all of the oil in my house and deep-fry something.  I'd use a deep-fryer, but someone *coughHandsomecoughcough* won't let me have one.  That someone is under the idea that if I had one in the house, I would deep fry everything in sight, and then I'd be so large I wouldn't be able to leave the house.  In which case I'd just stay home and deep fry some more.  That someone might also be right, so I'm not going to push the matter.  I might also eat 2 lbs of strawberries and cantaloupe.

Really, just about anything could happen tonight.  Unless it involves me leaving the house.  In which case, let me say "Nada Chance!".  Seriously, I am legitimately excited about that perfect outfit.  Its... I don't know, wonderfully worn it, comfy without being overly warm... perfection.

So, since I'm not doing anything, why don't you tell me what you're doing tonight?  Or what you did last night, if you have something better to do tonight instead of read blogs, and you're reading this on Saturday morning. Or if you live in Sri Lanka and its already Saturday over there (I'm not 100% on my time zones, so I'm not guaranteeing that it is in fact that far ahead) (and as a p.s.- did you know that FL has 2 timezones???!?!  I did not.  This changes things for me.  I'm not sure what, but it changes things.)

For the record, Duke fully endorses my Friday night plans.

Housebound & Loving it,

TFW