Day 90: On the Road

Monday was an airplane day. There was absolutely no time at all to wander by the fabulous Chicopee, MA Walmart. I really, really wanted to drop by, but it wasn't meant to be. My box of Norma Kamali goodies should arrive tomorrow, testing the mettle of my favorite UPS man. I'm sure he's up to the job.

God bless my GPS. Tired as I was from the weekend's festivities, I'm glad I didn't freak out when the GPS guided me the back way through the Berkshires to Hartford. Such peaceful, rolling scenery. I felt lucky to see the villages and historic homes decorated for Christmas, Norman Rockwell-style. Saw lots of geese flying south, and many, many people driving around with Christmas trees tied to the tops of their Subarus and Land Rovers.

I've been a bit of a slacker with the photos. I'd hoped to snap one as soon as I got dressed, but I had to take my DH back to campus before I left town. I simply can't imagine why she wanted to stay in the hotel rather than her dorm....

So I did manage to gather my clothes together, at least, on Monday night.

The ensemble:

The sweater and the pants are the two new Norma pieces that I couldn't wait to wear. The sweater is a fine gauge cotton, so it's not exactly warm--but it is long. The pants are a knit, styled like jeans. Love the cut, love the flare, love the way they fit. It would've been nice, though, if they'd put actual pockets in the front rather than stitching that looks like pockets. Odd. The necklaces are new, too. I think they're fine--they contrast nicely as a pair, and the tunic-length sweater screams for a long necklace. Love the all-black silhouette and the way the sweater falls to mid-calf. I felt very tall.

Norma Kamali sweater: $15; NK athletic jeans (something like that): $15; White Stag necklaces: $7 each; George blouse: $12; Earth Spirit shoes: $30  Total: $79

Oh, and I did wear the brown/gold scarf for much of the day. Very cozy on the plane. You've probably seen enough of those scarves. I have five or six or seven of them. (Clair, they are all Walmart--Eye accessories are my only exception)

Tomorrow (today?) I'm off to Sam's to see what's what. Not hopeful. Am expecting more piles of the same old stuff. I guess I'll have to wait for spring to see some new things on the tables. *sigh*

Have a fabulous day!

Days 88 and 89: While I Was Off to Massachusetts

Let me say right off that I take my sworn mission to embarrass my children as much as possible very seriously. It's a sacred duty. And yet I feel I was not the success I might have been this past weekend while I was visiting my daughter at college.

How fun it would have been to declare--or at least quietly mention--my humble Walmart/Sam's Club clothing project to my darling's college crew. But she suggested, nay, begged me not to reveal a single detail of the origins of my clothes. Many denizens of college campuses are Walmart haters, and I really don't want to make her life hard. I got the impression that she believed she would have been ridden down the hill on a long, nail-studded rail if her friends ever found out what I was up to. So, no matter how silly I thought she was being about it, I kept my mouth shut.

There were a couple of awkward moments--the most memorable was our trip to the fabulous Prime Outlet mall that's about a half hour from school. I had to traipse through Eddie Bauer, Nine West, Cole-Haan, Michael Kors, and J.Crew stores, pretending all the while that I was breathing poisonous air and had to get out quickly just so I wouldn't hyperventilate with clothing-envy. I was a little tense because one of my DD's friends was with us. It helped that I could concentrate on looking for clothes, etc for my DD and so didn't even think to buy anything for myself. But there were many, many things that tempted me.

The good news is that the campus was full of teenagers and my head could've been on fire all day and not one of them would have noticed because it wouldn't directly affect them.


So, Saturday's ensemble:

The embarrassing thing about this ensemble was that the sweater was so long that it hung far below my black leather Calvin Klein jacket.  That really bugged DD. Me, not so much.

Ensemble: White Stag necklace: $5; Norma Kamali Sweater: $20; George turtleneck: $10; Norma Kamali cords: $15; Faded Glory Boots: $23; Scarf: $5  Total: $78

Sunday night:

Love this necklace! Found it in St Louis. $8; Nine West Jeans: $17: Earrings: $7 Scarf: $5; 525 Sweater Co (Sam's Club) $17.95; Earth Spirit Shoes: $30     Total: $84.95

The Cords are super-comfy and I do like the mix of the fuschia with unexpected colors like beige and copper. We won't talk about how DD wore the black tank that I was supposed to wear beneath that sweater.

Further adventures to follow tomorrow!

Day 87: In Which I Totally Hit the Motherload

Friday was a long day. It began at 4:20 a.m.--two hours earlier than my usual weekday morning--and didn't end until about twenty hours later. I won't bore you with all the gruesome travel details, except to tell you that the sprawling Atlanta airport gets more pleasant every time I connect through it (though I don't understand why they number their gates from the END of the terminal instead of from the center, like most other airports--I realized this almost too late as I started to stroll my way to gate A3 with my Au Bon Pain sandwich, only to discover I had to run a half-marathon to get there before the plane boarded), and that I wish people whose feet smell like rotten cheese would keep their shoes on in the airplane.

When I arrived in Hartford, Connecticut, I rented a car to drive the hour or so to my DD's school. But you know I didn't go straight to campus. I had to stop at the mothership, first.

Note that I didn't say "nearest" mothership. See, I've become quite the WM connoisseur. I was in search of Norma Kamali and Max Azria pieces, and it required homework.

There's no easy way to find out which WMs carry the lines. First, I have to google map the motherships in the area in which I'm traveling. Then, I have to figure out which of those stores carried the brands. The easiest way to do it is to look up NK clothes on Walmart.com, put in a specific size, and a zip code. Usually the search offers up a "Limited Stock" message. This message is troubling. It usually means that someone (like me) has returned a piece of clothing to the mothership that was bought online and now it sits, lonely, on some random rack. They often have no other NK or Max Azria clothes at all. I admire the whole "find it in the store" button on the website, but it's very misleading.

There were four possible WMs on my route, but the one in Chicopee, MA seemed most promising.

Now I know where all the Norma Kamali clothes in the WM world live!

I was a madwoman. I was obsessed. I spent a very intense forty-five minutes flinging the clothes in my cart and then trying them on in the fitting room. And I did it while I was en route to visit my sweet daughter at school. After I'd gotten up at 4:20 that morning to drive to St. Louis to catch a plane. Madness!

But look what I'm shipping home:

Yes, it's a whole Queen bed full of Norma Kamali yummy goodness! There is not one thing I bought that I had already seen in St. Louis, where I usually get my NK goodies.

So, do you think it was so well-stocked because Norma herself lives in the Berkshires? Hm. I kinda doubt it, too.

Someone who knows me well needs to tell me that there's no way I have time to stop back by the Chicopee Walmart on the way to the airport on Monday. Because I don't, but I'm obsessed, and I'd like to try.

I did make one small change in my travel clothes as a result of my find--I'm switching out the jeans and sweater I'd planned to wear home on the plane for a new sweater and comfier pants.

No picture from Friday. By the time I remembered it, it was midnight. I was not feeling at all Witty, Pretty, and Bright.

Be sure to comment on your favorite/least favorite ensemble from the last three (!) months to win the books or the giftcard I announced on the blog earlier this week! Do it before noon on Monday, okay?

Hope you're having a terrific weekend full of new discoveries!