Lingering in the Splendor of Fall

Is it just me or have retailers been pushing christmas and gift-buying a bit earlier than usual this year? Seems that emails about getting a jump on Black Friday and the holidays and “last chance” opps are triple what they have been in the past.  Yes, I’m a retailer…but I’m not ready to push the holidays just yet! I remember, back in the late 70s (yes, I am that old) when I had my Country Peddler brick and mortar stores, my clients would clamor and beg for holiday decorative pieces to be put out in September instead of the first day of November. I made the mistake of sharing with a few of them that all of the holiday items were ordered the prior January, received in July and were sitting in the Country Peddler warehouse, tagged and ready to go when I made the switch from fall to Christmas and Hanukkah! Big mistake! The second year, I did acquiesce and changed the shop over to holiday on October 10th!! Loyal customers were parked out front waiting for me to open the doors at 10:00 just so they could get first dibs on all the delightful goodies.

Throwback Thursday, 1956 & Pleated Skirts

A wee bit of a throwback – January 1956 – my brother and I posing for a quick snap, most likely taken with the family Brownie. It’s always fun for me to look back at the few old pix I have. It gives me a peek into my fashion sense – how it started and how the past influences my personal style today. Judging by my brother’s outfit, my guess is that we were going somewhere other than school on this particular day; although my outfit would have been the same had it been a school day. A little side note – notice the neighbor’s car. Yes, that was a big black Cadillac!

Online Shopping?

Crystal Quartz & Pearl Three-Strand Bracelet

This evening I thought it would be fun to go to the outlet stores and take a gander at a few of my favorite stores – J. Crew, Tommy Bahama, Converse and Nike. While I do live out in the boonies, for some reason long before I called this home someone had the idea to build an outlet shopping center right off the freeway here in town. And, over the years it has changed dramatically and has become quite the destination spot for people on vacation during the summer. I guess people really like to shop!