My first Stitch Fix!

I don't know if you've all heard about this before, but Stitch Fix is a shopping service that allows people to shop for women's clothing and accessories from the comfort of their homes - all with the services of a stylist. I find that new clothing is one of those things that can give me a little boost and make me feel better, but time and money don't always cooperate. So, why not let a stylist pick out some pieces for me and see what I might like?

The premise is that you pay a $20 styling fee and they will send you five items to try on. Keep the ones you like and send back the ones you don't. The $20 styling fee will be deducted from the price of any items you keep and if you keep everything, there is a 25% discount on the whole order. You will want to fill out your style profile so that your stylist knows what you're looking for and what styles/items you prefer. Check out the link at the end for more info!

So, on to the clothes....

I specifically asked for no jewelry or accessories since these are items I don't swap out much anyways. I mostly wear the same few necklaces that mean a lot to me and I don't swap purses much, but those are options to receive too.

#1 - Grey Kut From The Kloth Danny 5-pocket Knit Pant
Keep - No
I actually like these pants, but I already have an almost identical pair. Comfy, stretchy, but look nice - this was a good selection for me.

#2 - Dark Purple Mystree Desi Graphic Knit Cardigan
Keep - No
I love everything about this cardigan except the print. It's an awesome medium weight and if it had been in a solid color or some other print I liked better, I would have kept it. I was in the tiny Aztec-type print and just wasn't something I would wear as-is. This was another good selection for me if just tweaked slightly.

 

 

 #3 - Red Daniel Rainn Brock Lattice Detail Blouse
Keep - No
Instantly when I took this out of the package, I did not like the fabric. It would be easy to wrinkle and was almost a bit scratchy for my taste. The style was nice, but I didn't even consider keeping this one.

#4 - Black Fate Nattie Scoop Neck Sweater
Keep - no
I almost kept this one. I like the loose sweater and the fact that it was in black made it very versatile. It was a little on the thin side for my taste - I'm always cold! If Christmas wasn't coming up and I was thinking about saving up for gifts, I may have kept this one.

#5 - Blue Market and Spruce Aleah Heathered V-Neck Dolman Top
Keep - yes
I love this top! It's a nice medium weight, a beautiful color, and the shape helps to hide a little muffin top. The only thing I would have changed is I would have preffered long sleeves to 3/4 sleeves - but I still love it anyways!

Even though I only kept one item, I think they did a pretty good job selecting items for me. Every item was something I would wear either as-is or with a minor tweak (different color/fabric). Another great thing is that you can submit comments with your orders so your stylist can learn from the hits and misses. A couple of the items were a little more expensive than I would normally pay for a similar item, but the convenience definitely has value as well. I will do Stitch Fix again - probably in a couple months. It was a fun experience and I love the little boost I get wearing my new top.

I recommend this service whole-heartedly - give it a try!

https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/4279953

YouTube share - homelessness

Just as a heads up: I am taking college classes and may sometimes share modified versions of my papers here. I probably won't share verbatim, but sometimes I'm inspired to share portions with others outside of my class. I hope these types of posts aren't too boring for you. :-)

http://youtu.be/MdbHEZp0WPA

This video sent the message that homelessness is a growing problem and that it isn't always the people you would think of. It can be families where the parent or parents are working but just aren't able to make enough money to support their families. Health problems, job loss, divorce, and various other problems, added to the lack of affordable housing, can have devastating effects to a family's fiscal health.

This video did present the issue in more of a personal trouble perspective with just a small focus on a public issue perspective. And even when they did go into the public issue perspective, it was more about how to treat homelessness rather than prevent or correct it. There was just a very small segment where they discussed HUD's plans to work to prevent homelessness. Mostly though, they focused on the problem of these two families from a personal trouble perspective: they focused on the first family's medical problems and the second family's divorce as the causes of their homelessness.

I find this video very scary from a personal perspective. I am a single mom of three children. My first ex-husband, and father of my oldest, pays a very minimal amount of support because he voluntary quit his job in the IT field so was able to claim minimum wage during child support calculations. My second ex-husband, and father of my other two children, has never paid any child support. He has a felony warrant out for his arrest because he owes so much, but even if he is caught, that won't change my financial situation.

I have a good job, considering that I don't have any type of post-secondary degree. I worked very hard to get to the position I am in today, but I am maxed out and can go no further until I earn a degree.

In addition, my oldest has Type 1 diabetes, so I have a lot of medical expenses even though I have medical insurance. Between deductibles and copays I am still responsible for quite a bit of money out of pocket every month.

I get by, but live paycheck to paycheck. We live in a small trailer rather than the old, but spacious houses we lived in previously. I am thankful that I was able to buy a modest home that doesn't require too much maintenance after my divorce. However, I live in a state of knowing that I am one disaster from losing my home. If my son were to go back into the hospital for any time, if I were to get laid off and be out of work for even a short time, if I had to get a different job that didn't pay as much – any of these things would most certainly mean I would lose my home.

Unlike the families in the video, I am blessed to have family that I can lean on in an emergency. However, even my parents live in a two bedroom house – that would be awfully tight quarters for all of us. And like the divorced woman in the video, shelters would not be an option since my oldest is a teenage boy – he would not be allowed to stay with his sisters and myself in most, if not all shelter situations.

All in all, I understand that this reality is all too real and all too close at any given moment. That is what keeps me going and taking classes to get my degree and further my career. That way, I can get to a point that I no longer feel like I am always on the verge of this happening to me.

Time to get this thing going again...

I will make this post fairly short, but just wanted to get out there and say I'm planning to try to keep up better with this! I still may not be a super-regular poster, and maybe my posts won't be anything spectacular, but I think writing again will be soothing.

Life has changed a LOT since I last posted, so I will try to get a new About Me post up soon.

Thanks for following me!

Twi-Mom

I am a total Twilight mom...I'm willing to admit it. I can't say I was "in it" from the very beginning or anything, but it has really sucked me in since.

I was a little curious about these books when the buzz started - I've always been a bit of a vampire fan. A few months before the first movie came out was the first time I attempted to get ahold of the books at my local library. They had a huge waiting list, however, and I wasn't THAT interested to mess around with putting my name on the list. If I remember correctly, they also had only a one week check-out time on these books because of their popularity (normally four weeks). I kept checking again every month or two, but they were always on hold and I still wasn't interested enough to put myself on the list.

Shortly after the movie was released on DVD in March 2009, we rented it. At the time I thought it was OK, but nothing to write home about. In May sometime, I was at a rummage sale and stumbled accross a copy of the book, Twilight, for only a quarter. I bought it and started reading it the same day. I was quickly hooked. I can't remember the exact order of the events that followed, but by June, we bought the movie and it was like a whole new experience, watching it after reading the book. Even without reading the book, my husband started to really like the movie too. So much so, that for a period of time, we were watching the movie 3-4 times a week, like a little kid and their favorite Dora video. To our defense, though, we were without cable living in a temporary rental home with nothing but a few DVD's & VHS's to entertain us (I'll go into the reasons for that in another post sometime).

I remember checking the library again after reading Twilight and they still had a waiting list, so I bought the softcover of New Moon; I just couldn't wait. It didn't take me long to finish that one either. I believe that I had to wait a bit for Eclipse to come out in softcover (I couldn't make myself pay for the hardcover), but not too long and I had that one too. By the time I was done reading the first three books, I was able to check out Breaking Dawn from the library (I eventually bought the hardcover edition for $9 on Black Friday).

By this point, I had fallen completely in love with the Twilight universe. My husband and I rarely ever go to movies, but we will make sure we see the Twilight movies (and Harry Potter, but that's for another post as well). If we didn't have jobs to worry about, we'd probably be at the midnight showings! As it was, we went to the first matinee on the first Saturday New Moon was open. I loved it and truly could not wait to see it again. I thought I was going to have to wait for it to come out on DVD, but a friend/co-worker of mine (who I lent my books and got hooked on Twilight) and I decided to go during the last week of showings here. I think that's the 4th time in my life that I went to a movie twice in the theater.

So, needless to say, I'm getting very excited for Eclipse to come out - only two weeks! Of course we won't probably see it until a matinee that weekend (we're cheap like that), but it's still not long now. We'll see if I "splurge" and go twice to this one. I have 4 friends/co-workers who are into Twilight now, so you never know...

I'm always watching one of my favorite sites http://twilightsource.com/ for news and clips, especially this close to the movie release. It seems like there are new tidbits every day.

I may post more in-depth at some point about each book/movie, but I've probably rambled on long enough for today. Catch ya later!

About me

Well, as all best laid plans tend to go, I am just now finally getting out here to post. I will be the first to admit that my posting may be sporadic and in fact may seem to be all over the place to many. I plan to just post bits about me and my life and the things that are going on in it. One day I might talk about books; another day I might talk about diapers; and another day might be movies. Some days I might just vent.

I suppose I should tell you a little bit about myself. I am married with three kids, I live in small town in the midwest, and I work full time as an analyst at a local university. My kids are: S, boy, age 10; K, girl, age 7; and N, girl, age 18 months; my big kid & husband, D, is 35. I am 31 years old. I originally got married, to S's dad, when I was 18. We divorced just shortly after I turned 22. I married my current husband shortly before I turned 24. I love to read, though I either don't have the time very often or I really should be doing something else when I am reading. I also have a touch of computer geek in me, but just a touch. I sometimes just like to veg out in front of the TV too (DVR is my friend). I'm more of a homebody; I would much rather spend time at home with my family than go out (most of the time anyway).

I will share more as time goes on, but I wanted to get a little out there about me. I'm not a professional writer or anything either, so please forgive any spelling and/or grammar mistakes you may see here. I hope you enjoy spending a little time with me!