Tag Archives: shopping

Target

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Shannon| Leave a comment

You’ve heard it before, but you’ll hear it again from me: Target is like a magnet for time and money. You can’t get out of there. You go in for one thing and you wind up with 68. If you go in with a toddler of micro-attention spans, you can add about 20 things to that total.

It’s probably a good thing that I live in a Target-free place (though I hear they are coming soon!), since I really don’t need the temptation. While wandering the aisles today, I had a thought that it was sad that I had started to believe that Easter stuff just really sucked now, since this wasn’t true: it just sucks in all MY stores! All the cute Easter stuff! My plastic eggs were dumb colors. Boo Canada.

Today, we set out to get grocery and a few items like toothpaste for the kid. We came home with not only epic amounts of groceries for my in-laws refrigerators, but also: puzzles, children’s books (“Duckling Gets a Cookie!”), a dvd, Dora paper plates??, baby wipes, an eyeshadow brush, coffee/creamer for our local campaign office, oil pastels, laundry detergent, drawing paper, sale easter eggs, egg cups, baking tins, chocolate molds, and a random tube of Neutrogena hand lotion that my daughter threw in the cart without us noticing and managed to get purchased accidentally. Spontaneous furniture purchases only narrowly avoided the grand total.

My daughter was delighted with the party aisle and quite fascinated with the first aisle of toys. She did turn to go down the dreaded “pink aisle” but only picked up a stuffed dog and carried him the rest of the way to the end. Whew.

She was starving and a little manic by the time we got over to the food, so I had to give her a string cheese so that she did not have a meltdown. Let me correct that: I had to give her the string cheese that we clearly had the obligation to pay for anyway, since she had fished it out of the dairy case and bitten into the plastic thereby severing the top portion of the piece of cheese from the rest of it.

Then, there was a very indulgent sampling of the container of blueberries we had selected to go home.

By the time we got to checkout, there was not a single square inch of space left in the cart. The cashier thought we might need two to get to the car.

But hey, we saved $18!

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The Bra Lady

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Shannon| 1 Comment


Like so many girls, I spent far too much money on bras at big retailers that didn’t quite fit. I figured I was just a weird (way too big) size and that the 38 D’s I was coping with were good enough. I would just have to readjust them now and then to avoid the dreadful “double boob” and everything would be fine.

I was living in NYC and a friend told me “I go to this great shop called ‘Linda’s,’ they do fittings, they have tons of sizes. You should go!” I brushed it off for awhile thinking it was just your average lingerie shop, that there’d be only boring grandma-bras in my size. But eventually, I tagged along with her to check it out.

And I was hooked. I had NEVER had a fitting so precise and a shop so committed to making sure that I liked what I was trying on. Over the next few years that I lived in NYC, all of my friends started to pledge their undying devotion to the Bra Lady.

Linda’s was a tiny shop with a HUGE selection and serious assistants. It was pretty clear that if you were serious about bra’s, you had to go there. I found more and more women who were fans, you merely had to utter the word “Linda’s” and you’d get a stream of praise for the wonders of this special shop.

When I first went for a fitting, I wasn’t terribly off on my size. I was wearing a 38 DD when I should have been wearing a 36 E. But the difference DID matter. And so did the style. I have been lucky enough over the years to have fittings with the Bra Lady herself. Linda is boob-magic. I’m pretty sure she could tell someone their bra size from 50 paces. She did my fittings when I was pregnant and again when I was nursing. She has talent for figuring out any bra-complication. She should be declared a National Treasure.

Once you know a great fitting bra, you don’t look back: all your clothes look better, you feel better, and you stop worrying about adjusting all the time. I have seen the crazy things women go through, especially at larger sizes like myself (I’m currently a 36 F because of nursing) to get their lady lumps in line. Stretchy camisoles over too-small bras, two bras at once, going up a band number because you can’t go up any more cup sizes in a particular brand. When you actually have OPTIONS in your real size, it’s a revelation.

Linda’s has now branched into two locations, has a huge and devoted network of followers, and has a fantastic website. Now that I live in Montreal, I order my bras online from Linda’s Online. There are so many options, not just bras (swimwear in a wide variety of sizes!!!). I have recommended this site to more people than I can count. They even have an online bra-size calculator here!

This month, I’m Linda’s “BFF” and I’m featured on their site, which is pretty cool. I can’t wait for the next time I get to visit. By then, I hope I’ll be done with nursing! Oh blessed day.

Anyway, if life gives you “melons,” ladies, get yourself to Linda’s. You are welcome.

Update: here is my “BFF” page http://blog.lindasonline.com/2011/12/13/lindas-bff-bra-fan-forever-is-shannon/

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Eating and shopping

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Shannon| Leave a comment

That pretty much sums up the days preceding my body being overtaken by hostile sinus pressure and achey-ness. My mom and her husband came to visit for thanksgiving (read: to see the baby) and I made a vegetarian, dairy-free thanksgiving dinner. It was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself. This Butternut Squash Couscous dish was my favorite, besides the pumpkin pie. How I love pumpkin pie…

Anyway, my toddler sucked up the extra attention like we’ve never done anything with her in the history of ever. Toys that she had ignored suddenly became fascinating, books that she wandered off during were miraculously interesting, the mere act of running around the apartment gained a level of amusement not usually accorded to days when I just want to stay home.

I think you can safely say, my kid likes visitors, and especially likes it when those visitors are her grandmother whose patience and attention for her antics know no limits.

We went out shopping just a wee bit. Black Friday sales exist here in Canada, but aren’t as crazy as the States, since it’s a work day and all. We made crepes for dinner and also ate leftovers and sushi. It was very multicultural.

On Saturday, we checked out some local toy stores and took a long walk. For those of you who live in Montreal, our favorite toy stores/baby stores are:
Boutique Citrouille at 206 ave Laurier Ouest
La Jolie Boutique at 5623 ave du Parc
Bummis at 4302 boul St Laurent

Technically, Bummis is a cloth-diapering store, but it kind of has everything baby-related. Best of all, it has a small play area and a place to sit down and breathe as well as change diapers. It’s kind of my favorite store in Montreal because they are so nice and have saved me from some epic meltdowns by merely having a welcoming sofa.

After the shopping, my mom and I had a very late lunch at Crudessence, a raw-vegan place that is really very good. Their mango “lassi” made with cashew milk is kind of heavenly. My daughter is crazy about it.

When I got home that night, the sickness that had been only brewing descended in full force and the next morning my mom left so she could go back to work on Monday, which sucks, because I could really use a mommy to make me soup and bring me tissues about now.

And that’s the wrap-up.

My pumpkin did the painting, I did the cutting and letters.

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