Clothes, Books, and Bad Plumbing

I did a purge of my closet earlier this year. I’ve replaced some stuff with me-made items, but I was looking forward to seeing what was in the stores. Despite the fact that I have nowhere to wear fancy clothing, part of me still likes and appreciates fashion.

I was getting ready to meet DD#2 on Saturday morning when I noticed that the drains in the Airbnb were—to put it delicately—slow. Very slow. I made a mental note to check when I got back. I went and picked up DD#2 and we headed north to the mall where she used to work. She still works for Nordstrom, but from home now, in a corporate position.

There is a Hobby Lobby, a Joann Fabrics, and a Half-Price Books all within a block of each other near the mall. We popped into Hobby Lobby first. I found some fabric I would have bought if I could have found someone to measure and cut it for me. Stores there are desperate for help, too. We wandered over to Half-Price Books to check out the craft section. I almost always find treasures there. I was not disappointed. This was on the shelf:

I literally looked at this on Amazon not two weeks ago but didn’t pull the trigger. It went into my shopping basket, along with a Singer book on serging. I look forward to digging into this one.

We went to Joanns to look at the selection of foam. I am making a set of cushions for DD#2’s patio furniture, but she wants thicker foam for them. I am still in the research phase of that project, but at least I have an idea of what she wants. I also gave her a mini-class on fabric, as she mentioned that she wishes she knew more about different fabrics types—fiber content, weave, etc.—and there is nothing I like better than to wax poetic about textiles.

Our next stops were Target, Kohls, Old Navy, and Barnes and Noble. I don’t shop at Old Navy, but I do like to go in and get ideas for baby stuff to make in my serger classes. We eventually made it to the mall, where we went into Nordstrom and chatted with DD#2’s old boss for a few minutes.

I am a trial to my child because I insist on shopping at JC Penney. I only shop there because that is who carries the Liz Claiborne brand. DD#2 started her career in retail fashion at our JC Penney here when she was 16 and she has opinions. LOL.

My sense from visiting stores in Seattle is that much of the backlog of merchandise that was held up during the pandemic has finally arrived in stores. (That was confirmed by DD#2.) The Liz Claiborne section of this JC Penney store was full to bursting. It’s a good thing that most of the tops were too short for me or I quite possibly could have bought way too much. I have no place to buy clothing in Kalispell—our one big department store closed several years ago, and while we have some small boutiques, they carry a lot of what I would characterize as casual and Western wear in lots of muddy earth tones. I don’t like to order online because I need to try everything on.

What I saw in Seattle was—finally!—a riot of color. Coral is big this year. We saw it everywhere. I can do pink-y corals, but if they lean to much toward orange, I steer clear. However, I also saw plenty of hot pink, emerald green, and royal blue, and I bought accordingly, both at JC Penney and at Macy’s. (Charter Club is another favorite brand of mine.) I plan to crib patterns off of several of the tops so that I can make future versions of them, including another style of Liz Claiborne knot top. I actually ordered a second one of that top when I got home so I can take it apart to trace.

We had a good day of shopping, capped off by dinner from Trader Joe’s that we prepared and ate at my Airbnb. I noticed that the drains were still pretty slow, so I went upstairs and talked to the Airbnb hosts. Apparently, they were aware their sewer line had an issue and repairs were scheduled for the following week. They were very apologetic and offered the use of their facilities, although that wasn’t really convenient. I decided I would just be vigilant and keep an eye on things.

On Sunday morning, however, I cut short my shower when I noticed the water wasn’t draining AT ALL. Then I began smelling sewer gas. I suspected we were one toilet flush away from an environmental disaster, so I got dressed, packed up my stuff, and loaded the car. I let the Airbnb hosts know that I was planning to leave and get a hotel for the night.

[The hosts later refunded that night’s stay and apologized again. They are subject not only to Airbnb rules but also to Seattle city regulations, and I think they were afraid I would give them a bad review that could jeopardize their license. However, I want to stay there in the future—provided they can get this sewer issue resolved—because it’s so convenient to DD#2. I gave them a good review.]

I’ll cover Sunday’s shopping expedition in the next blog post.