My Favorite Store

I went on a shopping spree this weekend.

For someone that hates shopping, it was a rather successful outing -- I secured seventeen dresses, fourteen skirts, twenty-nine sweaters, forty two winter shirts, six business suits and one pair of jeans.

An entirely new wardrobe, all in colors that I love. And they all fit perfectly.

I'd bring you shopping there, but the inventory has been severely depleted. In fact, rumor is that the shelves will be completely empty by this evening!

I should probably give you some back-story here: When we bought this house we were enamored with the wood floors, tin ceilings and period wall coverings. We envisioned ourselves sleeping in one of the spacious south-facing bedrooms with three windows and a large closet. The children would be accross the hall from us in their own large bright rooms with bookshelves and a rocking chair in each room.

That is exactly how we lived in the summer of 2005. Oh, there were some inconveniences -- the lack of a second floor bathroom meant that trip to the bathroom with a toilet-training toddler required traipsing down the stairs and through three unlit rooms -- but it was nothing that a portable potty chair couldn't solve.

Then the weather turned. Our bedroom, which was so bright and sunny during the day, dropped to freezing temperatures overnight. Those large windows were uninsulated, as were the walls behind the pretty wallpaper. Our poor ancient oil burner was no match for a New England winter. The oil prices didn't make us any happier about the situation, either.

We promptly moved into more humble accommodations -- the "ell" of the house which had been walled and insulated in the 1970s. There are three inter-connected rooms arranged train-car style. Where in our old room we had tin ceilings, in our new room we had sloping walls. In the place of pine floors we had shag carpeting. And there is no antique wallpaper in our new digs, just sheetrock painted pale blue. What it lacked in charm it made up for in convenience though -- we now had a full bathroom, insulated walls, and a close proximity to the woodstove.

So what does this have to do with my weekend shopping trip?

My hanging clothes never made the move from the old bedroom to the Winter Palace. Since my current job requires nothing more than sweatpants and a flannel shirt, I haven't felt the need for easy access to my business suits. When I do feel the need to wear a cocktail dress, I can don a parka and mittens and rifle through my old closet.

But now that I have my very own walk-in closet......
Isn't it great to have a handy husband? He fashioned this out of a previously unused corner of our bedroom. With just a coat of paint, two hanging racks and a carpet remnant, we have our very own bit of luxury in our pedestrian bedroom.

All of his hard work me with a lot of work too -- the fun kind of work in which I got to pretend that I was a fashion model. I tried on every scrap of clothing in the room,
sorting the clothes into
keep,
donate,
and discard.

Once I finish sorting through the sweaters, I hope that I leave enough closet space for mr warillver!
Though I didn't plan this to coordinate with this week's Unplugged project, I'm pretty sure that this fits the "sort-junk-donate" theme! Click over there to see what everyone else is junking and donating.