I cleaned out my side of the closet today to make room for my recent shopping extravaganza spoils. Out went the 2x shirts that bag around me making me look pregnant, the 20W pants that I’d taken in to about a 16 and had been wearing to work even though I could again take them off without unbuttoning. They are being replaced with shirts in size L and pants in size 12. Halle-freakin-luiah!
Shopping for clothes has never been my favorite activity. Still isn’t. But it was necessary and I know that having things that actually fit does feel better. I did pretty decent with sales. Last week I got a pair of pants from New York & Co. for $16! Thursday, I got clearanced sleeveless shirts for $2 each from the evil Wal-Mart (I wear them under uniform shirts for work – which those are all too big but I’ll likely wait a bit to replace them, I just leave them unbuttoned and open like a cardigan.) Then yesterday, sweaters and pants on sale, both $16.99. The store (KMart) only had one color or the pants I wanted in 12 Short so I bought a pair of grey pants from the store and shopped online last night for 2 pairs in black and a pair in denim. I also got some workout shorts and capris and a white shirt for the upcoming color race. About the only thing still on my “clothing to buy” list is an additional sports bra (sports bras… that is a whole post topic there!) Pretty impressed with KMart’s online ordering, I placed the order at 11:30pm last night and got a shipping confirmation with tracking number at 2:45pm this afternoon.
I refuse to spend a ton of money on most of my clothes. One, I plan on losing more weight so I will need to replace them, likely before they wear out. Two, even though I don’t often work “front-line” at my job, I really never know when I might have to provide back-up in a crisis… as a last resort, if a kid’s behavior is a safety risk, we restrain… you would not want to be wearing $60 pants, have to assist in a restraint, and find your knee going down into a pile of mud, or feel your pants catch on a rock and rip!
I didn’t sew today, probably tomorrow. I finished a rainbow themed quilt top a few weeks ago. Currently I’m working on a denim quilt top with chopped up old jeans and leftover scrap denim from various sewing projects. I need to get fabric for the back of both of them (another item on the “to buy” list, geez.) I’m thinking of using flannel and just doing a double thickness of it with no batting for the denim quilt. I have the batting for the rainbow quilt. Here’s a picture of it from midway through it’s creation… I’m currently too lazy to walk upstairs and get better pictures of the rainbow top actually completed and the denim one in progress. And because it’s been too long since I’ve posted Tippy helping me sew… here is also a picture of her doing her stretching exercises (she hangs on the cat tree like this often)
I got excited today thinking my order from Amazon was in the mailbox. Walked to it and it wasn’t. The order contains henna for my hair, coconut and almond oils (actually for my hair as well but I’ll probably keep them in the kitchen since I can cook with them if I want too.) I went to a health foods store last weekend and got a box of henna and indigo and did my hair. The indigo took more than the henna… it looks good but it just isn’t red enough! That was my first natural dye job, won’t be my last! I don’t want to use permanent chemical dyes anymore because I am trying to grow my hair as long as I can and damaging it with dye jobs won’t help that goal (plus, permanent or not… red fades.) I love Manic Panic dyes (no damage and awesome colors) but with the running and accompanying massive sweating I foresaw rivulets of color streaming down my face and back since it bleeds color for weeks after use. So, my answer to the dilemma is henna with an occasional indigo addition if needed: Red, more permanent than permanent chemical dyes, no damage, and no bleeding. Woo-hoo! My hair currently measures 23 inches from my hairline to the ends. First goal, 25 inches.
So to add to my crazy out of character shopping sprees, I ordered three pairs of glasses from Zenni for myself (including a pair of prescription sunglasses with cool rubberized tips on the temple ends for running outside!) and one pair for DH on the 19th. I’ve gotten the notification that their manufacturing is done, I expect I’ll get a tracking number Monday or Tuesday.
Well, I’m going to shut up for now. This is why I came back to having a blog… so I can ramble about anything I feel like in a format more conducive to rambling than Facebook is.