Sweater Shopping

I ventured out to the mall today in the attempts to buy a new sweater to celebrate the rain we have been having lately. 

First stop was Forever 21 - I never go into Forever 21, but I wanted to try and find something stylish but cheap so I decided I should try to stop being a baby and give it a shot.  Whaddoyaknow, I walk in there and feel completely overwhelmed.  I walked from rack to rack, touching things here and there to avoid looking like a total weirdo just speed walking from rack to rack, not really sure what I was looking for.  There are WAY too many colors and styles in one store, just placed haphazardly everywhere around.  If anyone knows the organization scheme behind Forever 21, please let me know. 

After the Forever 21 disaster, I decided to check out Aeropostale.  Buying children's clothing is always a long shot but sometimes you can get cute clothes for a big discount.  I walked through this store for about ten seconds and decided I might finally be too old for Aero -- I was making excuses in my mind about shopping for some "ten year old friend" who happens to be the same size as me....yep, I was in and out of that store too.

Next up was American Eagle.  This was a bit more promising, and I did find one sweater I had to try on:

I LOVE the colors -- I think the marbled pink with navy is adorable.  However, in true American Eagle style, this sweater fits in a super weird way.  I don't know what it is about their clothes lately, but they are all really short and wide -- exactly the opposite of long, slim fitting tops I prefer.  I even got three different sizes to try on (small/medium/large) because I know how goofy AE sizes can be, and none of them fit properly.  Big bummer -- the sweater had a lot of potential.

Soon I am going to hit up Loft in the sweater search and if that doesn't turn up anything, I am leaving sweaters in the dust and am going to instead embark upon a journey for the perfect long-sleeveed shirt...or maybe a cardigan....or maybe a purse....I need something to celebrate the start of Fall!

#025 Best Place to Buy Designer Fashions

The next few days are going to be busy with lots of fun and exciting things to do :)  Tomorrow a few of us from work are going to watch The Princess Bride at the Idaho Botanical Gardens.  It is so fun to go, and now that I invested in a reuseable snow cone cup, I can get snow cones for $2.  We are also having a bit of a picnic.  I think I am going to make hummus and bring a bunch of vegetables.  So far the line up also includes pasta salad and orange-soy riblets, so I think it will be a very tasty evening.

On Thursday, I am volunteering at the Shakespeare Outdoor Festival.  They said we can expect to stay until 11:30ish (OMG) which is a bit late for me on a work week, but then it's Friday so I won't be toooo behind on sleep.  I actually think my problem might be I go to bed TOO early, so this will be a great experiment.  This is also an opportunity to bring your own food, and I am contemplating making lemon-yogurt fritters.  I am a bit worried they won't be as good the next day (I have to make them the night before) but I love little things to snack on during both plays and movies.  Have any of you seen The Taming of the Shrew?  I don't think I am familiar with it, althought I know I probably should be.

In other news, I love rainy, dreary weather and now that I have a "real job" I am looking forward to fall weather even more (however, I do NOT love snow.  We are talking RAIN solely).  I have been eyeing this scarf for a while now, and I have a 20% coupon+free shipping, so I think I am going to finally cave in and buy it.  What do you think? I think it is the PERFECT scarf for Idaho! I also want to do a home improvement project and hang hooks in my room so I can display my scarfs come cooler weather.  I tend to forget all the options I have, so I would love to have them all staring me in the face.

While I have you here, a quick review on #025 Best Place to Find Designer Fashions: Fancy Pants. It is located right downtown, which makes it really easy to find from the various parking garages scattered around in Boise.

I feel like I cannot possibly be the best judge of a designer fashion store.  As you can see above, I consider an American Eagle scarf a splurge and I have been dreaming of a $60 sweater for a few weeks.  I really don't spend much on clothes and never really have.

For those who are fashion fanatics, this seems to be the place to go.  Every review I have seen refers to the shop owners by their first names, which I think is really cool.  It is almost like customers have personal shoppers willing to help them with exactly what they need, and of course that type of service comes at a premium.  I think Fancy Pants is so popular for those craving fashion because it offers what most of Boise does not - designer goods, hard to find brands, a rotating selection, and an overall love of fashion.  From what I have heard, the designer denim collection is to die for.

I thought this store was adorable and could have easily bought the majority of the clothes, but it was SO EXPENSIVE.  This isn't the fault of the boutique owners as it is simply the name of the game, but seriously.  I thought I would be able to go in and wander around, find something on sale, and leave a happy camper.  As soon as I walked in, I realized I had made a mistake and was a bit sheepish.  I pretended to look around and I am sure it was apparent I had no intention of buying, so I quickly made my way out of there!

I think it is great Boise has a store like this, but I won't be shopping there until I get a few promotions :)  In the meantime, I will enjoy salivating over things at Macy's and waiting for coupons.

Coupons and Clothes

I got back from Moscow last night... On the drive there, I was kind of freaking out.  I decided to follow my GPS, and went through Fruitland, Weiser, Tamarack, etc.  As I started that way, I realized I wouldn't be going anywhere near McCall and I know there has never been a time when I have gone the Boise/Moscow route without going through McCall.  I ended up going the McCall way on the way back, and I was paranoid for no reason.  Both routes were essentially the same...I might keep doing a different one each way to switch it up a bit more.

The ride back was AMAZING, if six hour car rides can ever be amazing.  Basically, as good as it gets.  For snacks, I had raspberries, blueberries, baby carrots, and cinnamon apple chips.  My genius friend recommended I get a book on CD and O M G it changed my life.  I got a CD called "Heart of the Matter" by Emily Giffin.  I got off work later than I wanted to, so I wasn't willing to stop by the library on the way out of Boise.  Therefore, I ended up buying it for $15 in Moscow.  Hopefully in the future I will just pick it up at the Boise Library.

Anyway, this is the same author who wrote Something Borrowed.  I haven't seen the book, but loved the movie.  It was an extra cool surprise that a bunch of the same characters from the movie were mentioned in the book (but I wouldn't call it a sequel.  Just the same family).  Also, I expected the voices to be super cheesy, but the reader was Cynthia Nixon and she did an awesome job.  The only thing I didn't like was that the story was about infidelity in a relationship, and I got really into it and really pissed at the main characters for awhile.  I think it made time fly by though and there was a happy ending :) Thank goodness!

While in Moscow, I ate and drank like a queen courtesy of my lovely boyfriend.  I had an amazing thai shrimp salad at Smoky Mountain (and a $1 Rolling Rock...what a deal).  We went to the arcade, and I had soooo much fun.  We befriended this little boy Connor, and he was really fun to hang out with.  When we first ran into him, I asked him his name and he said, "Connor but...uh...you can call me Connor."  It made me laugh.

My boyfriend and I did pretty awesome on the games, especially for only spending $5.  I really want to take my dad there.  Our favorite games were A) where you roll the ball into strategic slots trying to get particular numbers and B) where you try to stop the moving light on a special section.  Overall I think we had almost 250 tickets.  I used 25 for a sweet blue ring, and then we bought three airheads for fifty tickets each.  We gave one to our new buddy, and gave our leftover tickes to some other little kids.  Yes, the airheads did turn our tongues blue!

Connor also got some invisible ink...he went to squirt some on my wrist and it EXPLODED all over me and my white sweater.  I tried to keep my cool...amazingly the ink actually did disappear in front of our eyes.  You couldn't even tell it was there.  However, I am a bit nervous to wash it.  Any tips?  My boyfriend got him back though because he beat him 7-3 in air hockey! haha.

We splurged and decided to be adventurous and got some Cotton Candy vodka at the liquor store.  Everyone started telling me it wouldn't mix well with anything, so I started to feel bad about my choice.  However, we mixed it with soda water and cherry vanilla pop, and it tasted pretty delicious!  There wasn't much of a nasty vodka aftertaste.

We had dinner at Sangria, and I got the Emerald Stir Fry with chicken.  It was great -- I loved the cilantro and red onions.  Also, Sangria cocktails are $7-$8 each. I couldn't decide which one I wanted, so I asked our waiter to pick one for me.  Thank goodness I did, because the bartender (someone I know) ended up hooking me up with a delicious cocktail he put together, with Kettle One vodka, for only $4!  Of course I had to have two at such a deal, and ended up stubbing my toe pretty badly getting up from the table.

Overall, Moscow was all I was hoping for and more.  We also watched a totally FUCKED UP movie -- Eden Lake.  Watch it if you want to throw up...Jake says the Human Centipede is worse (haven't seen it) but it was seriously pretty messed up.

Okay, back to Boise.

So, somehow the Loft site stopped freaking out and here is a picture of the dress I got last week:

Love the outfit the girl is wearing with it.  So adorable!
Today I had another coupon that was about to expire (this time for American Eagle).  This time the deal wasn't quite as good -$10 off a purchase of $40 or more.  However, I have decided I want to do better at taking advantage of coupons, and it is a good excuse to get some much-wanted new clothes. Of course, coupon catastrophe hit, and I couldn't find ANYTHING I liked! I went into the dressing room three separate, times, which I was starting to feel really awkward about.

I had originally been looking for cute Fourth of July clothes, and finally threw in the towel and decided to look for some clothes that would do double-duty as wearable to work.  This was more practical anyway, and something I would really appreciate while trying to get dressed in the morning.  I ended up getting two things.

In stormy blue, which is a really beautiful light blue...it is heathered looking too.
I also got these jeans, but i don't think they are AS dark as they look in the picture.

Both things together were only $40...not bad.

Tomorrow I will post about the yummy salmon I made for dinner, how I feel about white pepper, and my adventures making possibly the worst final product of a dessert but the most delicious thing ever in-process.  Seriously, it might ruin your life because you will want to eat it constantly, it was that good (while I was making it at least).