Stitch Fixing: ReFixed (also Books!)

So I contacted Stitch Fix after my last post to say that I wasn't going to keep anything, but I'd like to try again. They waived my $20 styling fee for my re-do, I updated my profile, and my box arrived last night. On first glimpse, it's much more what I was looking for. Cute, fun, different summer clothes.

Item 1: Kut from the Kloth Lonnie Frayed Cuff Denim Short (Size 2), $68

Let's get this out of the way. Hard no. I hate that length of shorts always and being wrapped in a long sausage casing of denim sounds terrible in our 100+ degree summers. The fit is nice and I will keep it in mind if I ever bargain shop that brand. But no on this iteration.

Verdict: RETURN.

Item 2: Loveapella Madras Embroidery Detail Knit Top (Size XS), $48

This is very cute and I like it very much. The fabric is super soft but not thin and I like the embroidery a lot (and I am normally not an embroidery person).

Verdict: TBD; if I'd loved everything and could get the 25% discount I'd keep it, but probably won't for $48.

Item 3: Renee C Jensine Split Neck Blouse (Size XS), $48

I really like this top. Love the colors, the print, the uniqueness, and the length. This is the kind of thing I want from my stitch fix.

Verdict: TBD; like the top above, if I could get the 25% discount I'd keep it for sure.

Item 4: Gilli Tahj 2fer Knit Maxi Dress (Size XS), $78

I really like this too- super soft, great colors, flattering neckline you can't really see in my picture... only downside is it's too short. Like basically everything that is supposed to hit my ankles, it's floating about 2" too high. For the price, I can't keep it.

Verdict: RETURN, but reluctantly.

Item 5: Bay to Baubles Jerry Open Filigree Drop Earrings, $28

These are cute, but I have earrings that are similar and I rarely wear them. Not unique enough to keep for the price.

Verdict: RETURN.

~ ~ ~

And so I reach the problem I just continue to have with Stitch Fix. Unless I were to love everything and get 25% off all the prices (a dream long held, but never fulfilled), it's hard to justify when I know I can get cute things that are much cheaper. Especially when I have enough time to occasionally shop, and I don't hate shopping for the cheaper things. As much as I LOVE a box showing up at my door for me to try on- and I do! it's so rare as an adult to be truly surprised with a gift (even if ultimately, it's a gift from yourself), I just can't justify keeping many of the items.

Because I picked up these shorts at Target for $15 each (25% off $20) last week and they fit perfectly and they're cute and colorful and fun. Are they as nice as the $58 shorts I got in my last Fix? Maybe not? But they are 95% as nice. And that's all I really need, given that I can only wear shorts on the weekends and 50% of that time I'm in a maxi dress or swim suit and someday I'm going to have to grow up and wear shorts longer than 3" so these aren't exactly a long term investment. I'm wearing the mint and black pairs in my pics above. And the grey ones below are really nice- they're a slightly different fabric and honestly feel the same, if not better, as the ones I got in my last Fix.

(This polka-dotted style is also really cute. I could just only justify keeping so many shorts.)

I also ordered this Target top, which I love with the yellow shorts (that are honestly maybe a shade too yellow, but maybe not too yellow for $15. I'm keeping the tags on in case I decide they're too big bird), but I took it back because I didn't think the knot in the front was very flattering.

Maybe I was wrong? I've now been looking for basically the exact same top without the knot and have not been successful. I expanded to any black/white stripe cute top and still haven't found my replacement. I want something that is black with white stripes in some sort of cute, non-purely-horizontal compilation. Google doesn't like my phrasings and won't find me anything.

This is the floral top I linked to in the last Stitch Fix post from Express (40% off too!). I love it. Our winter is pretending to be spring, so I feel like this brings the two together.

And I love the work-appropriate-with-a-cardigan cut outs. They have it in a ton of colors; I already owned the teal. It's such a great top, esp. when purchased on sale.

And, after ordering 6 pairs and saving a ton of options to various shopping carts scattered throughout the interwebs, I found the perfect white jeans! And of course, they're from Old Navy. I even finally took a deep breath and almost ordered a $100+ pair from Nordstrom, but the $20 perma-on-sale Rockstar Skinny Jeans from Old Navy are perfection. No matter how hard I try to be fancy, I was made for these jeans, and Old Navy is the only member of the Gap family to still carry longs for smaller sizes. I still wear my Rockstar dark denim skinnies purchased in 2011 more than any other pair of jeans I've tried to love; when they finally wear out, I'll just buy another identical pair. I also got this super cute floral tank to go with them. Adorable yes? Sometimes Old Navy surprises me.

And I've just proven why Stitch Fix, though I think it is a genuinely brilliant idea and encourage anyone who doesn't like to shop or doesn't have time to try it out (referral link), just doesn't work for me. I'm more excited about the jeans and this top than I am about anything in my fixes and combined they cost me $36. My body is meant for cheaper things.

(Also, don't forget your eBates if you buy any of these things online! I just cashed a $200 check from my Christmas shopping, which probably says terrible things about my online Christmas shopping, but $200 of "free" money in February is a beautiful thing!!)

Speaking of cheaper things- someone asked on my last post where I get all my books, and the answer is: our public library! My sisterfriend Jenny told me about this a few years ago, that most public libraries subscribe to a digital online lending library, usually run by Overdrive. With your library card number you can log in and check out up to 10 books and place holds on others if they aren't available (I've never had to wait more than a week for one to become available; there's usually multiple digital copies). It's so great. I'm sure there's some limit to the books available, but every book I've ever wanted to read has been in there, and since I read anywhere from 2-4 books a week, this has saved me HUNDREDS and has let me read as much as my little bookwormy heart desires, whereas before I would cut myself off after a certain number of Amazon purchases a month.

As for what I'm reading now- I've gotten on a dystopian/YA fiction tangent thanks to a work colleague with similar taste. He recommended Red Rising, Legend, and The Three Body Problem. Luckily, he hadn't actually read The Three Body Problem when he recommended it to me; otherwise, all his future recs would be suspect because that book was NOT my favorite. It's an interesting concept and I wanted to want to read it, but omg it was like homework. I felt obligated. I sighed inwardly every time I clicked on my kindle app. It sat on my phone for 8 days and I was only 22% through and I finally quit. I have never taken 8 days to read a book. Clearly it just wasn't happening. The dialogue was so stilted I just couldn't handle it. Make whatever crazy world you want with whatever rules, but I need the characters to sound like they're actually talking to each other and not reading from cue cards. Luckily my coworker, who had the same criticisms, is more OCD than me and has to finish the trilogy, so he's filling me in on all the plot I'm missing. I've quit reading maybe 5 books in my life and I do not regret quitting that one.

We'll take the others quickly:

~ Legend trilogy: LOVE. Fun, fast reads. Great character building, I was very sad it ended and almost dipped into the world of fan fiction just to let me stay with the characters longer. Has anyone read Marie Lu's other series, the Young Elites? She's a beautiful character writer, so I'm curious.

~ Red Rising: I'm 30% through book 3; highly recommend the series. It's denser and darker (and much broader/more complex world building) than Legend, but I like it very much and recommend it too.

~The Queen of Tearling: another co-worker recommended this and I'm next up to get it from the digital library; has anyone read it? Thoughts?

~ Burn for Me: my beloved author duo, Ilona Andrews, wrote this book a while ago and when I read it I didn't realize it was part of a temporarily abandoned trilogy without its companion books. Luckily, they've started it up again, re-releasing this book (currently $1.99 on Amazon!) and releasing both books 2 AND 3 later this year. I'm so excited; anything Ilona Andrews writes is my favorite.

~ Kresley Cole is another author I still actually buy instead of check out because I love her books and re-read them so much. She just had a new one out in her Dacian spin-off line from her Immortals After Dark series- Shadow's Section, that I haven't read yet because I'm trapped in the above trilogies. She has a new book coming out soon in IAD later this spring (Wicked Abyss) AND a new Arcana book coming this fall (Dark Calling). I can't wait. These are the books I download at midnight Tuesday when they come out and read until dawn.

~ Echoes in Death, #44 in J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts In Death series. I still love these. I wouldn't pay for them- they're like cotton candy (super murdery cotton candy), but I love the characters, they're always fun, and I can never put them down. If you haven't read the series the first 12 or so are really fantastic and I've honestly enjoyed every one. They're like episodes of House- a self-contained murder story (the lead character is a lieutenant in the murder division of a futuristic New York Police Department), but multi-year long character arcs that grow and develop as you read.

And that's what I'm reading now (in addition to a fun dip back into Elizabeth Philips for an update in the Stars series and Iris Johansen for some classic medieval and Regency romance). The Court of Thrones and Roses series is on my list, as well as the Throne of Glass and Red Queen trilogies. Any others? I like pretty much anything not based in fact. Nothing that will make me think very hard, ponder my own life reflectively, or is based in our reality.