Ross, I Just Can't Quit You

I do a lot of my shopping at discount stores that carry brand name items - TJMaxx, Marshalls, Ross. And I rank their niceness in that order.

Most TJMaxx stores are really clean and bright with lots of high quality merchandise. You can find plenty of real leather in the shoe and handbag departments and they carry higher end brands. I have a pair of $180 Coach sunglasses that were featured in InStyle that I snagged for $60.


There are also great deals to be found at TJMaxx, particularly at the end of the season. At the end of the Summer I bought several of these cute straw totes to give as Happy Today presents for $1 each!


They're really well made, fully lined and have pockets.


I also bought my sister and myself these cute cover ups on the same trip.


For only $3 each!

So if TJMaxx is at the top of the list, Ross is at the bottom of the list.


There is a lot of junk in there. I feel like I need to wash my hands really well when I leave. They have those ridiculous baskets with the tall poles on them. They employ teenaged "security guards" to watch for shoplifters. Yeah, right. The shoe department smells like pleather, a rubber manufacturing plant, and dirty feet. Almost half of the shoes are on the floor and they strap them together so tightly so that you can't really try them on. My sister and I have been known to take out nail clippers to snip that little plastic ring holding together a promising pair of sandals. Shhh.

I bought my mother-in-law the cutest pair of pajamas at Ross for $16.99. I was excited to give them to her for Mother's Day. They were Liz Claiborne and had the tag on them for $58 (I was going to cut that off, of course). They were sold as a set and actually stayed together in the store because Ross used that annoying little plastic string to link them together. Thankfully, when I was cutting them apart to wrap them I noticed that the top and bottom were different sizes. And wouldn't you know the bottoms were bigger. Not the message I was trying to send my mother-in-law. Awesome. So I had to take them back and, of course, the other sets were gone. Grrr.

My brother-in-law, Ryan, sent me this video about Ross and I laughed so hard I cried. If you frequent Ross you will not be disappointed.

Watch video

So now that I've adequately bashed Ross, let me say that I have some fabulous finds from Ross. I bought my mom a pair of black slacks for 49 cents! I bought this cute puffer jacket for $1.49!


I did not need another jacket, but I could NOT pass up a $1.49 jacket! It's puffy without adding too much bulk.


While it's fitted, it also has the double zipper that you can unzip from the bottom so that you can walk fast in the cold without looking like a penguin because your knees are bound together.


The same trip where I bought the mismatched pajamas I also picked up a little gift for a friend. I am a sucker for terry cloth and swimsuit cover ups. I have lots of both. I thought this terry cloth dress was adorable!


It's tiered, it has cute little ruffles, and some interesting texture while still being simple.


My friend could wear this as a cover up to the pool, throw it on when she gets out of the shower and wear it while she gets ready, or even wear it to grab a snow cone or Sonic drink with the boys. She has pretty green eyes and is getting ready to go to St. Lucia with her man. This is perfect for her. It even has the $42 tag on it.

But then I started to second-guess myself.

What if she hates it? She's so nice that she'll feel like she HAS to wear it even if she doesn't like it. Maybe I shouldn't get it. Then I looked at the tag and told myself to snap out of it.


I'm sorry, Ross.

*Just when I thought you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this ... and TOTALLY redeem yourself!

* Note to my Mom: it's a quote from Dumb & Dumber. :)

99 Cent Jewelry Junkie

I like shopping for jewelry. But I really like shopping for 99 cent jewelry at NBC. The other weekend they had two large tables filled with Rubbermaid bins that were stuffed with jewelry. And everything was 99 cents. Be still my heart.

Now, most of the jewelry was in sad shape - broken clasps, only one earring, cracked stones, you get the idea. But there were some wearable or workable pieces and I snatched those up.

I got two of these Chico's necklaces. One for Sister and one for me.


There were a lot of these in the bins. Some had broken strands so all the beads off of one strand would be missing. Or the clasp would be wonky. I found two that were in pretty good shape. They each were missing only the outermost strand which is hardly noticeable and I think another strand might be overkill anyway.


I really like the bronze color of the beads. I think they'll go well with lots of different colors. The tag said $48.


Heavy bib necklaces have been catching my eye for the past few seasons, but they seemed so trendy that I haven't bought one. I had decided that I was going to get one anyway and then I was so pleased to find two bib necklaces in great shape.



I'm keeping one and sending the other to my sister.

The beads on this next necklace are really pretty in person.


There were sooo many of these. They had a neat magnetic clasp.



The problem with the clasp is that the magnets were falling out of the clasp. I found one that had a working clasp, but one strand was missing. I ended up buying a second one, too, planning on reworking it somehow.

I got home and removed the clasp from the broken necklace and restrung all the beads onto fishing line and a clasp I had left over from my days of making bead necklaces.


Uh, this took a lot longer than I anticipated. I was hoping that the teeny, tiny gold beads were attached to the larger beads, but they were not. I'm going to give this necklace to my mom which makes the work worth it because I think she'll really like it and it will look good on her.

Since the original necklace had all three strands, this single strand is now really long. She'll be able to wear it doubled:


or tripled:


I also bought my mom this Kenneth Cole necklace. She loves green.


It was in a Ziploc bag and the center stone was detached. When I got home I just reattached it with some floral wire.


The Kenneth Cole tag said $38.

I bought this necklace for myself.


The clasp was broken so I cut it off with wire cutters and replaced it with a clasp I had left over from a Goodwill necklace I restrung.


Seven necklaces for $6.93. I'm sure glad I stopped in that day!