....the apartment is within 5 minutes of the Oak Park mall...
I am not a shopper. I hate shopping. My body is hard to dress. Everything on my body is long. Generally, I have to special order my jeans extra long. Long sleeve shirts, are rarely long sleeve on me. To get a shirt that is long enough in the midsection, I have to buy in larger sizes. I'm curvy. I'm tall. I love it. But it's hard to shop. And generally not a lot of fun.
For my birthday, I decided to do some shopping. Because what I hate more than shopping is not having anything to wear. So I sucked it up and hit the mall.
There are so many points I want to make here so stay with me.
First, the awkwardness of being in-between. What I mean is, I am no longer a junior. Junior clothing is not flattering on me. It was hardly flattering on me when I was an actual junior. But Misses clothing generally has terrible fits and ugly designs. So where is one 23-year-old on a budget suppose to shop? JCPenny is very hit or miss for me. But I decided to give it a shot.
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| Jacket |
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| This shirt, to go under the jacket |
The JCPenny at the mall has several sections that makeup the misses department, separated by designers. And lucky me found a designer in the misses area that fits me. My style, my budget, my body. A.N.A is the brand name, and I will be a faithful shopper as long as I continue to have luck with their clothing. Here are a few looks that I went with..
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| I got this sweater/ scarf combo, but in a gray color. |
No shopping trip is complete without a new pair of shoes. I can't even remember the last time I spent more than $15 on a pair of shoes. So needless to say, I was a little overdue for some quality shoes that will work in the fall/winter months. My smelly canvas shoes will just not do. I really wanted to find something with a little bit of a heal because I am so over wearing flat shoes because I'm tall, but I couldn't find anything that wasn't over the top. But I did find these fabulous boots!
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| I got these boots in a gray-ish color |
The fun didn't stop there. I was also on a mission to get a few new pairs of jeans. Because, get this, most of my pre-preggo jeans are a little...loose. So I added a few pairs of jeans to my closet in a size in which I am not sure my booty has seen in.....years. First I looked at American Eagle because I always have luck with their jeans. I tried on a few fits to try to decide which fit I was going to order online (in extra long). But I also wanted to try a few other stores as well. New York in Company was my favorite go-to store for slacks when I was working. So I decided to see what they had to offer in jeans. Everything was buy one, get one half off...which I am a sucker for a good deal. I ended up findings two new pairs of jeans that were actually long enough without having to special order! Double success....
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| Some high-waisted, trouser jeans |
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| Curvy bootcut |
I went a little out of my comfort zone on these....
Alright now for the second point I wanted to make. The mall was having some crazy deals. And that is why I am in trouble. JCPenny was running a "fast cash" deal. For every $30 you spend, get a $10 coupon off $10. So I broke up my purchases so I could rock JCPenny, extreme couponers style. And New York and Company was also running a coupon special; in addition to the buy one, get one half off special. So with the purchase of my jeans, I got $60 in "CityCash" to use in store next month. So I have to go back and do more shopping. But oh wait, when I got back to the apartment, I found another JCPenny coupon that I can also use next month, in addition to the 15% off coupon I got on my receipts. They are sucking me in. Next thing you know I'll be getting their store credit cards...okay how about NOT. Good times at the mall.
After shopping was a dinner date at Cheddar's. Ian and I had never been there before, but we were both hungry and couldn't decide what to eat, so we make a quick decision. It was simply, fantastic. The food was very tasty, the prices were surprisingly low, and the atmosphere was great. I would highly recommend it. Pretty much every sandwich on the menu is like $7 with a side and I think the most expensive item was like $14, and that was on the steak part of the menu.
My actual birthday-day was low-key but very enjoyable. Spend a lot of the day just hanging out with Haley. Ran some errands, and had dinner at my parents.
On a different note, today is October 29th which happened to be my BFF's birthday when I was growing up. I can't help but think about her on this day. We had so many good times and always had a blast with our birthdays so close together. I think that is one of the reasons I always look forward to my birthday because it reminds me of the great friendship I once had growing up. Happy birthday Kelsey!
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