Yoyo weather

This is a wonderful photo from the local newspaper of the marshes hereabouts -- sans snow. The snow is disappearing again because it's raining again and the temperature is in the low 40s. The weather swings from day to day, sunny but very cold yesterday, gray and wet and warmer today. Who knows, tomorrow is supposed to be sunny ... I'll take what I get. And if it's nice enough I'll go walk someplace. If not, I'll carry on with the projects in the sewing room and the writing project here on the computer.

A recent discussion on another blog about dressing differently when one gets older was on my mind today as I carefully checked out the racks of end-of-the-season clothing at a store in the mall. I saw many bargains, some things I'd have snapped up ten years ago, just my style, fun to have and to wear. Sigh! today I pass by. Not only would many of those garments look unattractive on me today, I simply don't need them. Some are too dramatic, some are too tight fitting, some are too glittery, and some have too deep a neckline -- not so much because of modesty but because I no longer put up with the mild discomfort of being a bit chillly for the sake of looking a bit sexy. I found a cornflower blue, totally simple, totally classic cashmere turtleneck. That was my only purchase after over an hour of combing the racks.

Many other women claim not to enjoy shopping. I don't understand where they're coming from, never have. For myself, I love to see what designers, even unknown peons working for minor brands, come up with in line, embellishment, fabric, fit. Maybe it's because I began sewing for myself with I was in high school and was always fascinated by what a seam could do, how a textile could drape, how colors work together.

My quilting attitude is much the same. I can play with line, color, shape, embellishment. My favorite quilting is scrape patchwork quilting when I can make fabric/color choices each time I add a new square or triangle or piece. The spirit of play captures me. Maybe the people who hate to shop are the people who most enjoy quilting from kits; they feel safe with the choices of others. They make beautiful quilt, often more successful than mine. And I think they feel great pleasure doing so. Likewise I feel great pleasure in my spontaneous way. Takes all kinds to make the world go 'round.

Shopping

Sometimes I just got-ta shop. This was one of those days. It's so hot and summer's got a long way to go so I decided that even a tee-shirt is not cool enough to sleep in. I wanted a wisp of a top for sleeping and it's sale time in the department stores. So off I went to Daffy's which always has lots of racks of stuff on sale. Finding a couple of PJs quickly was easy enough.

But Daffys is a place where I have to allow myself a couple of hours because I HAVE to look through all the racks. They have tons of stuff for very young women but sometimes amid the age INappropriate tops and shoes and so on, I have, in the past found treasures for a tiny price. I have yet to meet any man who can comprehend the impulse to paw through item after item, stopping at the colors that that I like. In fact, many women also cannot bear this kind of shopping. It's a treasure hunt, really. I think it is infinitely more satisfying than, say buying an instant win lottery ticket and, in a matter of a few seconds scraping off the coating on the answer only to discover one has just wasted a dollar or five. If I don't find anything, even though I've enjoyed fingering knits, cottons, silks and synthetics and looking at a variety of styles, then I haven't wasted any money and have had both a tactile experience and the same satisfaction of the hunt that a fisherman has when he stands all day by the lake, maybe pulls in a few too small to keep and comes home empty handed, with no sense of having wasted his time.

It's something to do with my enjoyment of textiles -- I really enjoy seeing what's been done with different fabrics and patterns, perhaps other sewers can understand. So, did I find anything? Well, a $12 pale blue sweatshirt, totally classic design. Something I'll pull on over and over again in the cooler months ... that is if I don't act on thought I had on the way home. I could turn it into a quilted patchwork jacket. I had a conversation with a woman wearing such a jacket at a quilt show; she explained exactly how she cut of the ribbed cuffs and bottom , slit the front and sides and undersleeves, sewed on stripes of fabric and put it back together. I've been thinking about that ever since. Hmmm ... I suppose I'll keep on thinking about it until the weather gets cooler and I decide how much in love with this sweatshirt I am. There are possibilities ...

Hey, this isn't like going to the mall

My granddaughter, Cori, is getting married, so, I've been shopping. In fact, I spent all of Saturday afternoon in a frustrating shopping mode. First I asked for the bridal registry list from Bed, Bath and Beyond. They couldn't find it. What go do? Not waste a trip of course. I checked out lots of things, including a lot of sheets on sale, but all seemed to be king size, and I know she needs queen. Prices were pretty amazing even on sale and I was glad she doesn't have a king size bed. Then I checked out sheets, towels and other stuff at T.J. Maxx, which in NYC if upstairs from BB&B - not a mall per se, but three stores [the third if Flenes Basement] in a big old building one store per floor. I saw some possibilities but knew I needed to consult her mother. Because I was flying blind without that registry list.

Then I went up to Macy's -- the BIG MAMA of all Macy's stores -- because I'd seen an ad for a weekend sale on cookware. Yes, there it was, a nice set at a nice price. BUT boxed up, as all but the display set was, I found it would be possible for me to carry it from the stack to the cashier but was so heavy I'd have a struggle to get it down and up and up and up the subway steps between there and my apartment. I would need a wheelie thingie -- this is the CITY, not a mall. I had no waiting car in a nearby lot. If I should go back with my wheelie, and get it, I'd then face, the same processes to go to the bus station the weekend [when there's a shower]. Too much to handle. So I went upstairs to check out white sales. Oh, my! More king size sets -- doesn't anybody sleep in a smallish bed these days? And the feather duvets were astronomial, not to mention bulky [though not requiring Rambo-ish muscles].

What go do? Call her mother, Rachel, for advice. Had a nice talk with Rachel while she walked the dog around a pond [I've done that walk often with her and love it -- the like does not exist here]. I explained my frustrating day. "There's a Macy's in our mall," she said. I thought there was only a Filene's and Sears. Hurray! "See if they have the sale there too," I suggested. "Sure, as soon as we get on around the pond." Half an hour later, "I'm standing here looking at a cookware set. Is this what you meant?" -- For the past couple years I've listened to people on their cell phones in stores explaining dresses or computers or whatever to someone back home and thought, why don't they just make a decision and buy the thing or not? Well, now I understood. Yes, that was the cookware set. And yes, she should buy it for me -- because it's actually 60% off -- a better bargain than at most off price stores. Thus the buying power of big chains and the wonder of the "loss leader" advertising.

So, being at a mall, having a car and availablity of a push cart to take the big, heavy box to th parking area, the purchase was accomplished in minutes. I can get on a bus with nothing more difficult than my smallest wheelie suitcase and a checkbook in my pocketbook. Oh ... if only various other problems could be solved so efficiently!

Shopping

When my daughters were in high school we went -- at least once, maybe twice -- all the way to Boston (300 miles) to shop at the real Filene's basement, i.e., the original bargain store on two levels beneath Filene's department store in Boston. They had been there a time or two when we went to Boston from their grandparent's home in Fall River, Mass. They understood the philosophy of bargain basement shopping: have an idea of what you hope to find, then have the flexibility to decide about things you find that you like but aren't immediate needs and don't be disappointed if the hoped for item isn't to be found.

We had a grand time and settled into a motel after the work out with our sacks of bargains. I think we had a good dinner somewhere but I don't remember. I know we stopped at a bakery and bought treats -- that was when Leslie discovered the delight of Napoleons. We then spread out our purchases, gathered the tags and compared what we paid with the original price tag and felt a smug, even righteous glow about how much money we had saved.

For the most part this kind of shopping is a woman's sport. I am always surprised how few women actually understand the mindset of this kind of bargain shopping. It is definitely a middle class game. Although wealthy people usually like bargains they don't get the same joy. They can buy the $100 jacket anyway; but if we know we won't buy the $100 jacket until it's at least half price, we feel we've outsmarted the forces of retail commerce. Unfortunately, most poorer people simply don't have the discretionary cash to buy except what they really must have. I think about these economic realities but I truly love textiles and what is done with them. I can wander in expensive stores and buy nothing but very much enjoy the feel of luxury fabrics and the way they are cut and draped and sewn. I'm very good at "just looking."

Once in a while, perhaps every six weeks or two months, I really feel an addict's urge to hit certain stores that reliably have bargains. In New York one is Daffy's which has many clothes imported from Italy. Their merchandise ranges from quite good to really schlocky, from tasteful to tasteless. Today I had in mind that the last boots of the season might offer up a pair of excessively plain ones that I would like. That was the ostensible excuse. But really it was just time to shop. In fact the boots were all horrible, nearly all the shoes were horrible too. But there were racks and racks of sale items. I happen to have the patience to look at such racks item by itme; because I look at tailoring details, I feel fabrics -- unless one has experienced this it's impossible to understand the enormous range of fabrics used in making women's trousers, blouses, jackets, skirts. I can almost O.D. on tactile sensations. The color variations are equally enormous, and the variety of cuts, is much greater than the uninitiated would guess.

I literally spent three hours just looking, mostly rejecting and sometimes greatly regretting that so many sale clothes are very small sizes. Store buyers seem to think their shoppers are going to be size 6 and 8 and America really does not have so many 6es and 8s anymore -- as the media tell us almost daily. After three hours did I come home with a bundle? No, I spent less than $40 for two pair of trousers and a sweater any one item had been meant to retail for over $50, so -- yes, I got the nice kick of getting bargains. Now that I've had my fix I'll probably stay out of stores again for some weeks. I'll probably wear the new brown pants and sweater tomorrow. Immediate gratification!