Stitch Fix #2 Review: A Box of Awesome

So my first box of random clothing chosen for me from Stitch Fix was disappointing, but I did get one pretty cool looking top out of it. After some back and forth with the customer service representative, I decided to nabbed another date for my next Fix, because, well, I need clothes, and I have these young things that make clothes shopping with them in tow an unpleasant experience.

With a more lengthy explanation of what I was looking for, I asked for colored denim and some fun summer tops to match the colored denim for a hot Los Angeles summer. I also said I wouldn't mind a casual dress or romper but that every maxi dress I've ever tried on looks like a nightgown. This Fix was styled by a new stylist, and between tweaking the Style Profile, being more explanatory about what I wanted, and a new stylist, I got an awesome box of clothes.

What I Received

Kaleigh Ankle Biter Jeans

Kensie Kaleigh Ankle Biter Jeans, $88

Green! Okay, so I'm 5' 3" and not a stick figure, which, for whatever reason, has translated to not being able to find well-fitting colored denim anywhere. I guess I needed to go up in price point because here they are. These are also my first pair of skinny jeans. So about skinny jeans: I've been avoiding them. I tried them on at some *ahem* cheaper retail establishments that I frequent (often), and it did not end well. I even unchecked the box for skinny jeans in my Style Profile. And here they were. Oh, my dear Stylist, you're challenging me here. In a good way. I now love skinny jeans. If they fit. And if I can breathe in them.

Cadance Open Back Cowl Neck Top

Lily Cadance Open Back Cowl Neck Top, $34 

Okay, so if the top I kept from my last Fix had a sibling, this would be it! Cowl neck, triangle cut-out in back, form fitting. On top of that, it's sleeveless and is a fun summer color! Yes, yes, yes. What's not to love?

Felix Fitted Maxi Dress

LAMade Felix Sleeveless Fitted Maxi Dress, $54

So this is a maxi dress. And I hate maxi dresses. Or do I?

I was really disappointed at first to see a maxi dress on the list, because I did note that I thought maxi dresses looked like nightgowns on me. I'm a tall petite (how's that for an oxymoron), I've got all of 3 inches of torso, and now to top it all off I have childrearing hips, and because of all that generally I think maxis make me look short and stout.

Until I met this one. At first I thought it was just a plain oversized tank top. And then I put it on and I swear I heard the fashion angels sing. I just felt like I just looked so good in the dress, and that's what you want clothes to do - make you look and feel good.

So this maxi dress is clingy, and luckily on me in all the right ways. The bottom is literally just cut; there is no finishing on the bottom hem, and that was a little annoying. I did wish it was, I dunno, about 2 feet shorter, but it was super soft and felt nice. It is made of the type of fabric that will pill over time, so I wouldn't say that this is a super durable dress. My friend Dee shares the same distaste for maxis - she also tried it on and fell in love with it. What's kind of interesting is that when I googled the dress to see if I couldn't get her one of her own, the average price of this dress was $92!

Brydon Twisted Seams Striped Tank

41Hawthorn Brydon Twisted Seams Striped Tank, $48

I was a little unsure about the Brydon Twisted Seams Striped Tank. It's a really thin fabric and kind of a simple silhouette for the pricepoint. I do know that the sideways stripe detail is hard to find at Old Navy/Target prices, and I really liked that this top is navy and white and not black and white. In any case, the top I received had little cuts going across it, which was a little unfortunate and prompted an email to customer service.

Montgomery Chevron Cross-Front Top

41Hawthorn Montgomery Chevron Cross Front Knit Top, $48

I had seen this top in other Stitch Fix reviews, but in a light blue/white color scheme. I received a "cobalt" blue and black color scheme, which was a more somber colorway. So you know in Sweet Valley High, there are the Wakefield twins, and Elizabeth is the kind of boring responsible twin and Jessica is the fun twin? I kind of felt like this version of the Montgomery top was Elizabeth, and I kind of wanted to hang out with Jessica. Seriously, to me, the darker colorway seemed more suited to work outfits and PTA meetings, but maybe only because I know there's another colorway out there? The top looked casual enough with my cutoffs, so perhaps this is actually the more versatile color combination? I just thought the other color combo looked brighter and happier, and I was encouraged by my friend to ask customer service since I had to email about the Brydon tank anyway.

My Decision

So after a quick email exchange to customer service, I learned that they did have another Brydon tank to send me if I decided I wanted to keep it, and that they did not have the Montgomery top in the other color combination available.

Here's where Stitch Fix's funky math comes into play. The buy all discount was $63.00 for this box. I was definitely keeping the most expensive item (the green skinny jeans), and it was going to be cheaper for me to keep all five items that to keep four. So I had to choose between returning at least two items or keeping all five. If I was going to return anything, it was going to be the Brydon tank since it was so simple for being an almost $50 top. The second item to go would have been the Montgomery Cross Front Top - I loved the style and fit of it but the color was just okay.

I ultimately decided to keep the whole box! And funny enough, maybe it's just because of my general lack of fun fashion forward tops, I've worn the Brydon top and Montgomery top multiple times already.


So even though I didn't quite get what I asked for (only one top could really be worn with the green skinnies), I asked for the same stylist again because I thought she had a good sense of what I'm looking for and I didn't want to roll the dice with one of their other hundreds of stylists.

I'm looking forward to my next box!

If you're interesting in trying Stitch Fix, I wouldn't mind the referral credit!

Stitch Fix Review: My First Fix

OH BABY! My very own Stitch Fix review!!!

I have read so many of these that it's kind of fun to write my own! So I signed up for Stitch Fix back in May and didn't get my first box until the 4th of July weekend. I imagined being styled by young 20-something hot young things who had nothing better to do than to flip through fashion magazines and Pinterest boards to figure out how to dress me. Needless to say, the anticipation built up and I was super excited. I broke my Pinterest ban and made a style board to help my very own P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing, aka Stitch Fix Stylist) and in my first Fix I stated that I already had the basics and that I was looking for fun and interesting summer items for a very hot southern California summer. When the box came, I called my friend Dee over and she had a RIOT going through the box with me and taking pictures. I asked her to avoid the messy areas of my living room, to which she said, "There's no way to do that." *SIGH*

What I Received

 Faye Beaded Statement Necklace

Bay to Baubles Faye Beaded Statement Necklace, $34

This pic is a selfie because Dee took one look at the necklace and said, "Don't bother."

Now I'm no rocket scientist, but based on the colors I received, I would say the Stylist either started with this necklace as inspiration, or just kind of threw it in because it matched the color scheme of the box. I really liked the colors but once I put it on I very much felt like this is not the direction I wanted anything in my wardrobe to go in. Maybe because one of my longtime bosses who was in her 60s wore necklaces like this, or maybe because I didn't think there was anything on-trend about this necklace. In general, wearing the necklace made me feel like I was trying too hard, and I want to look effortlessly chic. I mean, let's be honest here, I'm a mom of two young children - I need fashion to BE effortless.

Linda Cross Front Knit Top
Leah Straight Leg Cuffed Jeans

41Hawthorn Linda Cross Front Knit Top, $54
Dear John Leah Straight Leg Cuffed Jeans, $78

Oh, where do I start? Probably the top. So this is not the first time I've put on a top like this. And the main problem with tops like this is that you have to be careful how the fabric crosses your breasts. If you've got a good set of ladies, you really risk one breast looking HIGHLY accentuated or fabric bunching up and puckering in weird places, which it did. The bright coral color was unexpectedly awesome - I don't own anything in this bright color and now I think I really should, but the top was overly cumbersome in making sure the fabric was hitting in exactly the right spots to not look weird. And for the price, so not worth it for me to have to fidget with it.

Onto the jeans. So I was somewhat annoyed at having received just a straight up pair of blue jeans after noting that I already had the basics. To me, there is nothing, and I mean nothing, more basic than t-shirts and blue jeans. That being said, the jeans were great, but a size or two too big. Plus cuffed I think they were supposed to hit higher up on the leg than just below the ankle.

Joan Mixed Print Henley Tunic

Fun2Fun Mixed Print Henley Tunic, $44

So the first time I tried this on I was wearing some denim cutoffs, because, you know, it's 100 degrees here in Pasadena, and you couldn't see my shorts under this top. The cutoffs weren't Daisy Dukes or anything either. This tunic was way long and I was calling it the nightgown. Plus the colors were as dowdy as dowdy can be. This is when I started getting mad at my Pretty Young Thing (P.Y.T.). I really think that there could have been no way someone seeing my style profile and Pinterest would have sent me this top. When I first saw it I thought it was a faded reject from the fourth of July as the colors were white, blue, and some weird raspberry pink color. And it really doesn't look so bad in the picture but I thought it made me look 7 months pregnant. And then Dee piped up, "Do they think they are dressing some 55 year old stay at home mom in Iowa or something? You did tell them you live in L.A., right?" So here I am, in this picture, wearing the cuffed jeans that were way too big and long for me, with a dowdy top made for someone that is 5' 7" and about 20 years older than me. The funny thing is that this very top was sent in a better colorway to someone who IS actually like 7 months pregnant!

Carey Abstract Print Cowl Neck Knit Top

Tart Carey Abstract Print Cowl Neck Knit Top, $44

Okay, so here's where things really start to get screwy. Plus, I apologize but Dee and I were really punchy by this point and all the pictures of the front of this top were blurry. Maybe I was still smarting over the Joan Henley Tunic above, but I think I got really frustrated at this point. I tried on the Carey Cowl Neck Top, and I really liked it. The Carey top has a nice thick fabric and long sleeved, and I was left wondering how in the world I was supposed to wear this in 100+ degree heat. I get that in Stitch Fix is based in San Francisco and their summers are different, but people in San Francisco should know what the weather is generally like in much sunnier and hotter Los Angeles. This too was the only top that the Stylist said was inspired by my Pinterest board. The top has a built-in shelf bra, a nice cowl neck in front, and fun triangle cutout in the back (shown). The print was reminiscent of some dip-dye items that I had pinned, and it was my favorite item from the whole Fix. The problem was that I was really looking for summer items, and besides the color, this, to me, screams winter.

So you could say I was disappointed in the first box. I felt like the Stylist just kind of glanced what I was asking for in my "Note to the Stylist" and saw "summer" and when she looked at the Style Profile saw that I was a mom and that was it. I wasn't thinking they were going to get it 100% on the first try, but I didn't think that it would be this far off, and I wasn't really prepared to go three or four Fixes so they could get to know me and my preferences. So I emailed about the jeans and the clothes and the fact that the box was really not what I asked for, and after writing them what seemed to a dissertation on my style preferences, they offered to basically redo the box if I chose not to keep anything.

My Decision & Lesson Learned

   

After an email exchange with customer service, I felt comfortable that I wouldn't need to go through 3-4 boxes before they started getting it right so long as I was more specific about what I was looking for and what I wanted. I ultimately decided to keep the Tart Carey top! It was a hard decision because I didn't see myself wearing it very much until the weather cooled down, but it was such a flattering top, and at $44, a steal for a Tart Collections top!

So I'm a newbie at the Stitch Fix game, but I think in addition to having a concise Pinterest style board (as in, it should be mostly things you would wear, not what looks pretty on the model), you need to assume that the Stylist assigned to your Fix for the month isn't going to get it right based on the Style questionnaire alone - you need to be a little bit bossy about what you want to wear and what you would like to see in your box for the month. So I think my mistake was saying, "I'm looking for fun summer items, no basics." I assumed my definition of "fun" and "basics" were the same as the Stylist, and they obviously weren't.

So in my long discourse with the customer service rep, who was awesome by the way, I explained that in my next box I wanted colored denim, fun summer tops, and maybe a fun summer dress or romper, but that I would be more than happy not to receive a dress or romper.  I also changed my jeans size on my Style Profile and checked the box that said I would prefer not to get necklaces since I had to rethink the whole game plan of getting random expensive costume jewelry. I also scheduled my next Fix for the end of July, since I have been in serious need of clothes that haven't been spit up on!

So if you're interesting in trying Stitch Fix, I wouldn't mind the referral credit!

Oh Baby! Just the IDEA of Stitch Fix...

So for the better part of a year now,  I have been noticing that more and more of my friends and colleagues were posting referral links to Stitch Fix. My favorite photographer was suddenly extremely more fashionable ("Have you been working out? What's different about you?") and another friend suddenly had monthly blog posts about Stitch Fix. What tipped me to trying Stitch Fix was when another friend upon wearing an outfit put together with items from her latest "Fix" said something to the effect of:

"Instead of being asked 'Rough night with the baby again?' I got all these compliments on how great I looked!"

Sold. Sold. Sold.

In another life I loved to buy clothes. But 2 pregnancies, 2 boys age 5 and under, and a new career where half that time I'm working with antique machinery have really changed my worldview on clothes. I'm now at a point where my weight has normalized from the two pregnancies, my clothes from 6 years ago aren't fashionable anymore, and wearing only cheapy clothing from Old Navy and Target is getting annoying. I tried to take my 2 year old son clothes shopping with me and all hell broke loose in the dressing room, which included him crawling out under the dressing door while I was mostly naked and into another occupied dressing room stall (true story).

So if for a mere $20 some Pretty Young Thing (P.Y.T....I mean, ahem..."stylist") could choose out clothes for me and send it to me with a free way to send back things that didn't work out and I could avoid that whole situation again, it was really worth a shot. The $20 styling fee is applied to any item that you choose to keep, so there is incentive to buy.

Now the one catch with Stitch Fix is that these are brands you would find at Nordstrom or Bloomingdales. Now if you're a bargain shopper (and I'm naturally a bargain shopper too), this is going to be a difficult one to swallow. But after trying on 15 pairs of pants and shorts one day and not finding one that fit, I realized I had wasted 2 hours looking for a bargain pair of jeans. On top of that, I'm of a very popular size range where by the time something goes on sale or hits the discount shops (Ross, Nordstrom Rack, TJ Maxx, Marshall's), usually everything in that size is just gone anyway.

So I decided, why not? In general I'm intrigued by the new business model of online personalization and also of subscription boxes in general. A return from an online shopping experience sometimes cost be about half the cost of the styling fee anyway, so I went ahead and signed up for my first "Fix" in May. And then I had to wait two months for my first shipment. Fun.

I'm going to review Stitch Fix here on this blog, with the caveat that I'm 1) no model and 2) not a fashion expert. Color expert, yes. Design expert, I would hope! Stationery genius, of course. But I know what I like and since my sister and my close friends are clothes horses I keep up. I am just a gal who is rediscovering my love for clothes and fashion.

Preschool Review: Fair Oaks Preschool

We toured Fair Oaks Preschool back in 2010 while looking for a good option for our first child.  First off, can I tell you how few and far between affordable infant daycare is to find?  Anyhow, I was excited about this place because it was right next to this:

The Gamble House (photo above taken from The Gamble House website) and the neighboring Craftsman homes were such idyllic neighbors to a preschool that I couldn't help but be excited for the preschool based on location alone.

I called and was told that I had to attend an open house before I could get an application/wait list form.  Fair enough.  So my husband and I rearranged our Saturday schedule and brought our son along.  The facility itself was small - like any other place they only had a handful of spaces for infants and just a little more for toddlers, with the bulk of the space going to preschool and pre-kindergarten.  Infants and toddlers were divided with only a room divider, which was a bit disconcerting, but the preschool and pre-K were in another room.  I didn't care for the preschool teacher and her answers to my questions ("the children do what they want") but really loved the pre-K teacher's approach.  They had tiny toilets for toilet training, and a slightly bigger toilet for the preschoolers.

I think I said to my husband after the tour, "I wish we could have PCC for the Twos Room and Fair Oaks Preschool for the pre-K."  Regardless, at the time we toured, it was a better option than WCC, so we decided that we would go ahead and apply.  Needless to say, we put our application and a $40 check in and never heard from them again.  Fun.

Preschool Review: Linda Vista Children's Center, Pasadena

So in the long never-ending search for a daycare for #1, I toured Linda Vista Children's Center, which was back then called All Saints Children's Center, based on the fact that they used to be based at All Saints Church in Pasadena. I toured it a long time ago, and I didn't come away with a nice fuzzy feeling.

So here were the pros:

• Beautiful campus - they had rented space from PUSD at a closed down elementary school and they were in the scenic Linda Vista neighborhood of Pasadena.
• They had openings for children under the age of 3, with not absurd child-to-teacher ratios (as in, better than state required minimums).

And here are the cons:

• Huge fundraising requirement. Each family was expected to help raise some absurd amount of money.
• Permanently in temporary classrooms. Since PUSD is going to make no renovations to the closed down campus, the Children's Center is permanently in temporary classrooms. Especially for the younger children who aren't walking yet, the cheap linoleum flooring didn't seem ideals.

I also took issue with the fact that in the Toddler Room, the changing station was so so close to the food preparation area. But it's been years. Maybe they changed that. If you take the tour, be sure to look, and remember, according to state requirements, they need to have a separate sink for diapering and a separate sink for food preparation.

Fancy lady (you know, the one I mentioned in the post about San Marino Montessori) had sent her older son there and absolutely hated it. A good friend of mine also had her first child there, and when I asked her about it, she said, "It was good because they had space for her, but I needed to get her out of there as soon as possible." Yet another friend sent her son there and loved it because the kids got to play a lot outside.  Go figure.

Preschool Review: San Marino Montessori, Pasadena

In our quest to find a good daycare/preschool for our first child, San Marino Montessori was recommended to us by a mom that was at WCC with us. Now, this mom was CLASSY with C (and not a K), had really nice outfits for her baby girl, and drove a really expensive and nice new premium SUV. This is all I knew of this lady but she seemed so put together that I took this recommendation very seriously.

After taking the tour, I would never ever recommend San Marino Montessori to anyone.

The one major pro that I can tell you about San Marino Montessori is that it is cheap for Pasadena. I went on a tour, and at first glance everything seemed okay not great.  Just adequate, but for the price, adequate is great. It's not a real Montessori, if you know what that means. The teachers don't come from whatever the two main Montessori organizations are. It's more of a "Montessori light" kind of place, which I actually didn't mind. They have the Montessori equipment, and the director seemed very earnest about the facility, which is always great. The class ratios were on the high side (like at the regulated minimum number of teachers per maximum number of students allowed).

But what turned me off on the place is that after the tour, on the way out of the facility, a teacher had lined a bunch of 3 year olds up against the wall and was yelling at them for not behaving. They were coming back in from recess (I had seen them on the playground during the tour) and I guess some were messing around in line. The way the teacher was yelling at them brought tears to my eyes, and I thought it completely developmentally inappropriate to discipline 3 year olds in this way. I later researched the facility online and found that another parent had brought San Marino Montessori to small claims, suing for money not returned to them after the facility asked the family to leave. To this day, we hear of other families having their child at San Marino Montessori and hating it, so it's buyer beware for this facility.

Disneyland Tip: Rider Switch

My firstborn son is nearly four and obsessed with Disney's Cars.  We've been deliberately keeping from him that there's this place about an hour away from us called "Cars Land" since Disney theme parks are, to put it mildly, PRICEY. 

Thanks to a good friend of us who works for Disney, we were able to go to a place that looks an awful lot like Radiator Springs in the movie.  He was so happy.  So happy.

 

Imagine my own happiness when I learned about Disney's Rider Switch program.  I didn't know it existed and it has really revolutionized the way we will go about Disneyland and Disney California Adventure from now on.  Since we're a family of 2 adults, a 42" child, and a 1 year old, about half the time of each adult while we've been at an amusement park has been standing with this creature while the other goes on the fun ride:

 

I learned that there is a Rider Switch program in place (you can go on the Disney website where they will give you a list of all the rides that have this pass).  So say for whatever reason one or more children cannot go on a ride and an adult needs to stay back with them.  So your entire family rolls up to the queue where there is a helpful Disney Cast Member in place. You tell them you want to do the rider switch. They give you some instructions on the rider switch pass.  One person stays behind while the rest of the party goes.  Then when the party gets back, the other person has a pass to go on the ride (with a friend of course!) that allows that person and ride buddy to bypass the normal standby line.  I wish someone had told me about this before we went to Disneyland the last time!

 

So we only utilized this for the ultra popular Radiator Springs Racers since we went on a weekday during low season, but it was really quite nice. We had Fastpasses, got there within the appointed time frame, got a Rider Switch pass on the way in, and the 42-incher and I rode the ride while Dad and the 1 year old stayed behind. It was quite an awesome ride and as soon as we found Dad my firstborn wanted to go again, which was quite convenient since Dad had the Rider Switch pass which effectively acted like a second Fastpass for the ride.  (I wanted to go again, too, but let's be real here.  The three year old can't watch the spitfire and Disney Cast Members really aren't THAT nice where they'll babysit for 20 minutes while we queue up and ride the ride.)

Every family with a child not old enough for the faster rides or not tall enough for the rides needs to know about this! Hopefully this will help you out the next time you go to Disneyland / Disney California Adventure / Walt Disney World!