Todayborday is Labor Daybor

Happy Labor Day, friends! It’s been almost half a year since our last Frivolous Shopping Blog update, so I feel a little guilty about pressuring Sarah, Erin, and Carrie into posting, considering I’ve been neglecting the blog myself (not that they’ve felt motivated to post, though, so I guess I don’t feel too bad). I haven’t had much incentive to buy cute designer clothes, given the latest project that my husband and I have been working on (we don’t know the sex yet, but I’ll refer to him/her as “Nibbler” in the meantime), and in fact, I’d intended to hold off on maternity-wear for as long as humanly possible, until I realized (a) forcing my burgeoning waist into my current clothes was getting really uncomfortable, and (b) I’m probably not going to shrink back to my pre-pregnancy size immediately after leaving the hospital.

So, with that, and some Gap reward bucks courtesy of my Banana Republic card, I made the following purchases:

Maternity skinny jeans: Yes, even pregnant ladies can wear skinny jeans! As someone who tends to avoid boot cut or wider leg jeans unless I’m pairing them with running shoes (which is . . . almost never), I didn’t want to have to give up skinny jeans even temporarily. And I have to say that these jeans look fabulous. I only teared up a little bit when folding up and putting away my J Brands for the time being.

Drop-waist ponte dress: This is kind of an atypical maternity dress, which is what attracted me in the first place. Also, it has Caroline-bait, also known as pockets. Sure, it’s still 95 degrees in Texas these days, but as soon as the weather cools down a bit, I can totally pair this dress with some tights and knee high boots (assuming my feet haven’t swollen to the point at which I can no longer fit into my current boots, which would be devastating).

A Shopping Warrior

There’s sticking out.

And then there’s sticking out.

Personally, I like clothes and accessories that aren’t mass-produced. If there’s a touch of uniqueness, a lack of ubiquity, I like it. Who doesn’t like to be one-of-a-kind?

So when I saw a pair of beaded leather flip-flops in Kenya, made in the Masai style (I can’t say for sure that they were made by actual Masai people) I coveted them. I was flying home the next day, and by this point in my vacation (my ‘shopping safari’ if you will), I had learned to bargain before any and every purchase. Sure, I probably paid a premium for most of my booty. But I didn’t care. Because where else am I going to find a healthy-sized carved gourd that I can name ‘Obama’?

But when I first saw these beaded sandals, it was in a roadside souvenir stand, set up for tourists traveling by road between Amboseli (near Mount Kilimanjaro) and Nairobi. And the salesman would just NOT come down on the price. Forty U.S. dollars for a pair of flip-flops? I wouldn’t pay that in America, and I wasn’t about to be (obviously) gouged in Africa. So, for the first time, I said “hapana!”, which means “no” (the extent of my Swahili), and walked away. I actually walked away and didn’t buy anything. Such strength of mind! Such courage!

Such a loss of beautiful footwear. Uh-oh.

And then, my sister came to the rescue. Because of a volcanic fluke (i’m lookin’ at you, Iceland), she extended her time in Kenya by an extra week. She was able to hunt down these lovely sandals at a reasonable price and got a similar pair for our mom. (You can spot my henna toe tattoo in this picture. I’m trying to start a trend.)

They even resemble the U.S. flag, so I’m all set for July 4th.

My not-so-secret addiction.

I effing love shoes. Love online shopping for them, browsing through the collections at Nordstrom, trying them on, staring at them on my feet in the mirror, what have you. Here’s the thing, though: I find almost all shoes uncomfortable, and I almost always just wear flip flops when the weather’s 60 degrees or hotter (which it is in Austin about 11 months out of the year). However, I’m also something of a fuddy-duddy (as evidenced by my willingness to use that term in print), and I also believe you should wear, you know, real shoes to classy places, like the museum and the theatre* and weddings. So, what’s my compromise between pain and beauty? Flats!

As I’ve mentioned before, I adore flats. I can’t stop buying them. My husband thinks I have too many flats, and he’s totally right. But what does he think I’m supposed to do when the internet is teeming with the most adorable flats in the world?

I’m a sucker for polka dots, bright colors, and teeny tiny bows. Luckily, I live in Austin, a city where these flats are more likely to say “hipster” than “family yacht” (I think? I don’t actually know what you wear to go yachting with your blue blood family, but I do know the J.Crew store is next door to a Lilly Pulitzer, so maybe that’s where I get the mental association), so I should be able to pair these with my hipster jeans, right?

They also make these in leathuh** with a brightly capped toe. Cute, though preppier than the polka dots, IMO. I’d probably get these if I worked in an actual office with other people and had to wear actual business casual clothes to work. Fun enough to brighten up my outfit but biz caszh (yes, I heart annoying abbrevs) enough to pass muster with my boss.

Okay, I know the husband said “no more black flats,” but these aren’t entirely black. The metal would make me look hard core, right? Theoretically, I’d wear these with the aforementioned J.Brand charcoal skinny jeans (that I got on super discount last weekend) and one of those trendy shirts with attached chains to a rocking show, but since I don’t actually like to go out, I’d probably just wear them to Tacodeli.

*I’ve always spelled it the British way ever since my high school English teacher mentioned it was her preference. Thanks for permanently ingraining that bit of pretension in me!

**Haven’t been able to pronounce it any other way ever since that one season of Project Runway.

A weekend at the outlets.

Oh, outlets. How I both love and hate you. Love you for your insanely awesome deals, like J.Brand jeans for $60. Hate you for other insanely awesome deals that still can’t be justified as actual purchases, like 50% off a Theory zip-up sweater that has short sleeves but zips all the way up to your chin. So my torso and neck will be toasty, but my arms will be cold. But I’ll look awesome and structured, because it’s Theory. Don’t mind me — I’m really just angry at the climate of Austin, Texas, where there is no time of the year during which wearing this sweater would make any amount of sense. (I’m also angry at Google, which refuses to find me any pictures of this sweater, which I desperately want to show you people so you can see why I’m so angry at the climate of Austin, Texas.)

Speaking of Google-related anger, I’m also unable to find a photo of the shirt dress I got from the Barneys outlet, so I decided to take a dimly lit, poorly focused self-portrait in the one full-length mirror I have in my house.

Keys to Caroline’s heart: belted shirt dress + pockets + A-line skirt. It’s just too easy. (By the way, learning experience from this 5-minute photo shoot: I was not meant to be a camwhore. I’ll stick to things that I already know how to do, like eating donuts and playing Plants vs. Zombies.)

Other deals from this weekend: ridiculously discounted Miu Miu sunglasses at Neiman’s Last Call (felt so insecure about liking these sunglasses that I tweeted at Mindy Kaling for her opinion but ended up getting them anyway because husband approved of their non-trendwhore appearance); 25% off a Brooks Brothers skirt suit that fit perfectly off the rack (going to New York City for a client meeting, simply cannot be seen by potential client in the only other suit I currently have, which is from 2004 Ann Taylor petites section); $5 Subway footlong with a crazy amount of extra meat, made by an inexperienced sandwich artist.

Where’s my hovercraft?

So, it’s 2010! It occurred to me to post another entry, since my lovely best friend (file footage here) told me that she read the blog today. Apparently, I started an entry in January about how I turned 30 and time passing quickly, feelings schmeelings, but now I don’t recall what all I was going to say. So instead, let’s talk about what I bought today at Nordstrom Rack (an establishment which has left something to be desired in the way of customer service, not that I’m going to harp on that when I’m getting Nordstrom stuff for half price).

Nanette Lepore is usually a bit too girly/ruffly for my taste, but when I saw this dress hanging on the clearance rack, I was drawn to it immediately. No ruffles, but it does have both sequins and chains! Girly, yet hard core.

I hate buying shoes just to go with a dress, but I’m also not tall enough/comfortable enough in sky-high heels to pull off the styling of that model above. That’s why I’ve finally given into the whole gladiator sandal trend that apparently refuses to die. They’ll probably be uncomfortable and cause painful blisters that will last all summer, but I will never learn my lesson, because I’m a slave to fashion.

Lighten up, it’s just fashion!

Hey, it’s fall already! That means I have fewer than two months until my sister-in-law’s wedding, which means I really have to get cracking on the music I’m supposed to play during the ceremony. In an effort to get me in the mood to be better about practicing, I decided to shop for the outfit that I’ll wear at the wedding!

I am in love. You gotta hand it to Catherine Malandrino for making the only dress I was willing to buy after combing through countless store racks and websites. Well, technically, there was a Christopher Kane dress that I coveted, but as much as I like to pretend I’m living a glamorous and fabulous lifestyle, I do not have two grand to drop on an outfit I can only wear a few months out of the year. To go with the dress, I found these Stuart Weitzman shoes at a major discount.

I really wanted a pair of Christian Louboutins, but apparently, they don’t sell those at a major discount. Whoda thunk it?

In other news, Brandon and I spent a week in Puerto Rico with my best friend from high school and her husband. We had a great time and ate multiple mofongos (but sadly, no piragua). November will be Courtney’s wedding, then Thanksgiving in Houston, Christmas in Indiana, and the next thing you know, it’s 2010. The year has gone by way too fast. Someone bring me a time machine, stat.

A man, a plan, a canal… Lazlo Gorog.

Working from home has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:
- Get up at 8:25, brush teeth, roll into work at 8:30 while in jammies, fix breakfast while waiting computer to boot up.
- Avoid spending money on coffee and lunch outside of the house.
- “Office” is always a comfortable temperature, because I have control over the thermostat.
- Don’t have to share bathroom with coworkers.
- I’m always around for Fedex/UPS deliveries.

Disadvantages:
- Social isolation. Out of the office loop, and the only being I see on a regular basis is my cat, and while she’s lovely, she isn’t exactly a fountain of stimulating conversation.
- Don’t exactly get any exercise when the farthest I have to walk is to and from the bathroom that I don’t have to share with anyone.
- It’s very possible I’ve forgotten how to make small talk with people. Whenever I get a phone call from anyone, I immediately want to know what they want, so I can get off the phone as quickly as possible.

It’s funny, because whenever I tell anyone that I work from home, 99% of the time, the person’s reaction is one of envy. The other 1% of the time, the other person has actually worked from home and says, “Yeah, the social isolation kind of sucks, doesn’t it?” Damn straight! The “E” in my “ENFJ” is there for a reason. I like talking to people, and I miss the social interactions from my physical office.

Given that, I’ve surprised myself by having telecommuted for going on 2 years now. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing, but I’ve grown to tolerate it. That said, sometimes, I just need to get out of the house during work hours. This is difficult, though, because Brandon and I share a single car. If I have any appointments during the day, we have to wake up super early so I can drop him off downtown before I show up for work (at around 8:30 AM), or he has to take the bus, which isn’t exactly a hotbed of convenience in our lovely metropolis.

Thus, last week, I came up with the brilliant idea of upgrading my laptop so that I could work out of coffee shops. This isn’t going to be an every-day situation, but I figured maybe once or twice a week, I could pack up the laptop, drop B off at work, and head over to a coffee shop, where I could soak up the music, have some caffeine, meet B for lunch, and generally enjoy seeing living organisms other than my cat.

Unfortunately, my MacBook is starting to show its age, and I wasn’t sure it’d be suitable for working out of a coffee shop (the last thing I wanted to happen was have it freeze up and choke when I was in the middle of something important in a location where I had no backup computer). Since I’d been thinking about upgrading this year anyway, I decided to take the plunge and buy a 15″ MacBook Pro, which, for the record, is the hugest laptop I’ve ever owned (I’ve been a fan of the 12″ iBook and the 13″ MacBooks, but for this project, I decided I needed something with more screen real estate).
Before I’d even really thought it through, I’d purchased a refurb MBP, an adorable stripey laptop sleeve, a copy of Windows XP Home that I could run through Boot Camp, and a family pack of Snow Leopard licenses for me and Brandon. Actually, I think the Snow Leopard licenses jump started the process in the first place, since B just assumed our weekend plans would consist of upgrading the computers in our house. Yes, people, we’re *that* romantic.

Anyway, fast forward to tonight, when I thought I migrated all my desktop files over to my laptop, only to find out that the permissions were effed, and I basically had no way of getting to the files to which I needed access. Good times. After Project Runway was over (BTW, I believe quite fervently that — SPOILER ALERT! — the judges should have booted Perez Jr. before Chicken Egg/Mother Hen, because crazy beats poor construction any day of the week), while Brandon headed to bed, I stayed up and reformatted my poor new computer’s hard drive. And here I am, waiting for the files to transfer and praying to the gods of file transfer that the scattered thunderstorms do not cause our power to go out tonight.

Anyway, I should head to bed now. I stayed up too late last night finishing The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (which is not without its flaws but still enjoyable), which means I got up late this morning, which means I’m staying up late tonight, which means… I’ll probably get up late tomorrow morning. TGIF. ‘Night, y’all!

Golden July.

I have a love-hate relationship with the month of July. On one hand, it’s just so freaking hot. We’ve had a month of 100+ highs now, which has caused my grass to wither and die, because this is my first year of home ownership, and like an idiot, I didn’t buy lawn sprinklers until it was too late. This weather has also made it extremely unsuitable for outdoor running (for a wimp like me, at least), which has caused me to seek solace in the gym, where I get no hill workouts, because I’m too lazy to adjust the incline on the treadmill.

On the other hand, July is awesome because of the Tour de France and the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. This year, I’ve joined a fantasy Tour group on the Versus website (invited by my lovely friend and cycling enthusiast Sara), and my team (Team Suitcase of Courage! what what!) actually took a stage win the other day. Unfortunately, my big ticket purchase (and official Tour Cocky Bastard boyfriend), Mark Cavendish, probably will not take the green jersey again. Blergh.

But yes, the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale! I didn’t bring home armloads of clothing this year, but I did pick up a totally adorable Loeffler Randall skirt. I told the checkout girl that I really wanted to wear it out of the store right then and there, and she offered to take off the tags for me, but I decided to practice some patience and wait until I got home before prancing around in it.

And now, off to Houston to see the family, help my mom set up her new computer, and drop by the Nordstrom in the Galleria.

Shopping, my frenemy.

So, my inaugural* blog entry is all about how much I detest shopping. It doesn’t appear that way, judging from the receipts I collected from Nordstrom and BCBG over the long weekend, but generally, I loathe to shop unless there’s something specific I’m looking for. I’m impatient, so when I’m looking for something specific, I buy the first thing that meets my requirements and head home. I’m picky, so if I do have something specific in mind, it’s sometimes so specific that it doesn’t actually exist, except for in my daydreams. (This happens most often with shoes, which explains why I spend a good portion of each day cursing the day I went to law school instead of, um, cobbling school.) I’m lazy, so unless I feel like I really need that particular thing, I won’t bother looking for it. And finally, I’m a creature of habit, so if I have an article of clothing that I particularly love, I will wear it every single day for months and months, until I find my new favorite replacement article of clothing, and then I never touch that first item ever again.

So, every once in a while, I get bored with my current wardrobe and feel renewed ambition to dress like I work in an actual office (rather than in my home office, where I see only my cat). The past weekend’s shopping spree was spurred by my recent discovery of Gossip Girl on Netflix. Okay, fine, so no one on GG has an actual job, but I would totally trust Blair Waldorf if she gave legal advice while dressed in a silk robe and nightgown. (After all, my clients take advice from me while I’m wearing yoga pants and a free t-shirt.)

Okay, enough exposition. Let’s get to the goods!

1. BCBG skirt and top that are no longer on bcbg.com, so you’ll just have to be satisfied with my incredibly helpful descriptors: “high-waisted and structured skirt” and “not a top I would normally wear, but I decided to be adventurous and try a new style.” My Asian upbringing prevents me from buying anything from BCBG at full price, so although BCBG comprises a good 50% of my current wardrobe, I’m always chasing the trends and buying pieces that are out of season. I can get away with this in Austin, because people here wear shorts to the theatre.

2. Guess flats made of suede and sequins:

I am a shoe paradox. On one hand, I am a total wimp when it comes to shoe comfort. Like, I can’t ever be persuaded to break in shoes. They have to be fully comfortable the first time I slip them on, or I will probably never wear them again. While I was enough of a wimp when I worked in an actual office and regularly walked around in an urban environment, this has become even more trying since I started working from home and stopped wearing shoes on a daily basis. It’s like my feet have forgotten what it feels like to be confined, and as a result, they now think wearing anything other than flip flops constitutes foot binding.

On the other hand, I am highly self conscious about my footwear. I’m constantly asking my husband if my shoes look okay with what I’m wearing. (His response: “You’re wearing flip flops with yoga pants. Do you really need my approval?”) For whatever reason, my self esteem in social settings is directly proportional to the purported chicness of the shoes I’ve worn for that outing. This is why I own 4 inch high Marc Jacobs patent pumps. I’m convinced that the hotness of the shoes completely outshines the grimace of excruciating pain.

Flats are the perceived compromise to style and comfort, but truthfully, a lot of them aren’t that much more comfortable than heels. I mean, I at least get some arch support from my Marc Jacobs pumps, if only because the shoes force my foot into an uncomfortably rigid arch position. Also, cheap flats are made of vinyl or plastic or paper or whatever, and the edges cut into my poor feet, which are already suffering anaphylactic shock from being forced into anything resembling actual shoes in the first place.

This is why these Guess flats are so awesome — they’re made from suede, so they’re soft and comfy. They have sequins, which makes them all sorts of fancy dinner party appropriate. Also, as Brandon points out, they’re gray, not black, which was key to their purchase, as I already have about 20 pairs of black flats of varying levels of comfort. (Brandon’s put a moratorium on adding any more black flats to the family.)

3. Milly Fabulous Obelisk A Line Shift Dress:

I don’t normally buy clothes online, since I like to try everything on first, but Austin’s not exactly teeming with Milly dresses discounted at 50%. And this dress has multiple characteristics that always win me over — an inverted pleat, a huge belt buckle, and pockets. If I don’t love it, it’s going back to Shopbop by USPS. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I’ll love it, if in part because it brings my wardrobe that much closer to Blair Waldorf’s. (The internets have informed me that many of the Blair Waldorf dresses I love are Milly, except for that amazing Foley + Corinna dress, which unfortunately does not flatter my body type at all.)

That’s it for this week’s (and probably this month’s) purchases. I guess I did also buy some bedroom furniture (as in a real bed frame and matching nightstands that you’d find in the master bedroom of professional, working adults), but I considered those to be necessities, as my current Ikea nightstand has been missing a leg for going on 2 years, which makes it very difficult for me to place my nightly glass of water on it without tipping the whole thing over. Clearly, I got very good at it, as I didn’t bother doing anything about it for nearly 2 years, but change is afoot. I’ll leave you with a quote from the blog that spurred my (probably short-lived) interest in writing about buying material crap:

“To be even be considered a tastemaker in any small sense is a great compliment to a vapid person whose priorities are all wrong.”

*Not technically, but hopefully all remnants of my college-era blogging have since been erased from the internets.