My rough road to super store shopping

I totally had a different inspiring, brilliant, eloquent (not really) Remember in December themed post I intended writing, but I decided to write this one instead because ONE I need to get it out of my head and TWO on the chance that you’d want to go out and pick up your own….but I’m getting ahead of myself.

{Total random flow of thought here so hang in there}

I do much of my blog writing in my head while I am in the shower. (It was the same thing for me during my professional writing days and actually got paid for my articles…ho hum). But in the shower I do some great thinking, even more so as a mom. It is peaceful, soothing, quiet, and I am completely ALONE. Well, I was in the shower thinking about my latest clothes purchases and how excited I was to share them with you, when I had a moment’s pause and thought “What will they think?” because said items were in fact bought at {hushed} Walmart. I hope no gasps. Yes, I do on occasion buy from Walmart, and not just 99 cent milk, actual clothes. Let it be known that I am now secure enough as a 30 something woman to declare this fact. However, that was not always the case. It was a rough road for me and my acceptance of discount super stores.

Flashback to the 1980’s. I was in elementary school and it was lunchtime, eating out of my tin lunchbox, when my best friend turned to me and quietly asked, “Do you shop at K-Mart?” I innocently answered, “Yes.” Then this so called best friend turned to the rest of the lunch table and announced very, very loudly, “Guess what! Amber shops at K-Mart!” Then came the laughter and the teasing—I was ostracized for the rest of eternity and the next recess too.

After that I didn’t DARE step foot into K-Mart. If I had to, it was under complete disguise—I didn’t care when my dad tried to logically explain that if one were to see me inside K-Mart then that would mean they too were inside K-Mart. I’d shop ANYWHERE other then K-Mart, even if my choices were very limited. Everyone I knew shopped at *The Northridge Mall*, the *The Glendale Galleria*—these were as good as myths to me. See, I was the oldest of seven kids, the last thing my mom wanted to do was fight traffic on the 405 and tow us all through a mall. When I started Junior High my mom took me to a place in the valley called *Marshalls* and I got a whole new wardrobe—I grabbed everything I could with the tag Guess on it. Then Mervyn’s opened up in town and that became the knew acceptable enough place. Still I was adamant against K-Mart or any cheap store.  When I turned 16, a mall opened up in our valley and my life was changed! Good-bye lame K-Mart, see ya boring Mervyn’s.

Flash Forward to college and there was this place called Walmart that I figured cheap students went to it for super cheap stuff. I maybe entered it twice my four years there. I just thought it was a disguised K-Mart—that, and I had no car to drive myself the far distance.

Zoom forward again, and I am married, a mother, and my house is closer to Walmart then my preferred Target. So I begin going on occasion. It’s a little bit sketchy, slightly ghetto, but hey, everyone else is doing it. The other moms say they have the best deals. Suddenly (at least in my world)it’s acceptable to shop at cheap superstores! Oh the beauty of growing up.

Now on this journey through time, let’s pause at the time we lived in Maryland for a six month job assignment. I am 31 and we are in a pinch. We just moved into our apartment yet our moving van has not arrived, and we need something to sleep on for the night. Right around the corner is a K-Mart. I felt like I hadn’t seen one in years (really they’re like no where to be found these days). I decided to go buy sleeping bags. So for the first time in decades I stepped inside a K-Mart, and I could give a flying flip if anyone saw me…not that anyone would recognize me because we had just moved across the country…but still.

Moral of the story? Actually I don’t know, it was so dang long. Oh yeah—it sucks being nine and having the lunch table judge you for shopping at K-Mart, it’s great being 34 and buying cute clothes at Walmart no matter what anyone thinks. That and—I just wanted to show you what I found at Walmart this week in case you were interested in getting your sasses over there and buying some too.

Now, I need to be honest and tell ya that up until three days ago I probably had like three items in my closet from Walmart, one of which was a super cute white tee shirt, one was my new fav denim jeggings, and the other were silk p.j. bottoms. But I’m here to let it be known that you can find pretty cute stuff in their clothes section. For instance:

The whole reason I was in the clothes section of Walmart—this fun Santa tee. (I braved three different Walmarts to find this).

At one of them I couldn’t find the Santa tee, but I found this versatile shirt that came with the scarf. 10 bucks! Can’t beat that for a shirt and a scarf. They had other colors like black, white, purple, grey.

Then at another one I found these hidden treasures. A $15 grey Military (very trendy right now) jacket.  A $10 plaid shirt dress (also popular these days) and a $7 green thermal to go with….

these festive $12 P.J. pants (I’m a sucker for a cute, comfy pair of P.J’s).

A few tips though:

Walmart has a lot of really not so cute stuff. So browse with a keen eye. Be careful of your color, print and pattern choices. Some can look more expensive/or cheap then others. Example—the grey military jacket also came in black, but it looked faded and cheap. The grey was a richer looking, more appropriate color for that style. (Later on that week I was at a very expensive department store in the mall and they were selling almost identical grey military jackets for almost five times the price. )

Anyway, since it’s like the new year now that you’ve finished this ridiculously long post, I’ll let you know that I’ll post up the pictures when I wear these pieces in an outfit….whether you care or not because I am a grown woman, I shop where I please if it has cute stuff for a good price, and sometimes I wear snowflake p.j. pants for half the day because it’s Saturday and almost Christmas and it’s cold out.

Whew. So good to get that out of my head.

Love.

Joy.

Peace.