We might not all be able to afford a personal shopper, but we all have mates. (Mind you I don’t think that all personal shoppers cost money, it’s just that they cost money in persuasion!). So why not treat yourself to a shopping trip with a few friends, especially if you would like to pick out some bargains.
It might surprise you to know that I’m not very good at clothes shopping, considering I keep talking about sparkling and how important it is for us Mums to take care of themselves. The big hairy northern one is much better at it and tended to just put me in a fitting room while he found clothes for me to try on. Since having kids this has obviously been more difficult because he would be trying to catch bored children who think that hiding under a railing full of clothes is really good fun. So I must admit I tended to opt for clothes shops with extremely helpful assistants who would do all the thinking for me, or none at all, or quick raids while Little Dimples is asleep.
However, I’ve changed my tune after being invited by TK Maxx to let them style me for the MAD Blog Awardsceremony (this friday, cross your fingers for me!). I’m the kind of shopper whose eyes go cross eyed when faced with lots of rails packed full of clothes, so I have always avoided sales and shops like TK Maxx. But no longer, because I have found the secret for those of us who don’t possess the gene that includes ‘finding a gorgeous bargain’! ……
Go with mates!
In my case the mates weren’t mates at the beginning of the day, but there is nothing like a shopping trip and discussion of body issues to bond a group of women! There was the lovely red headed geeky mummy, the little but very cute Busy Mama, the reliably honest Sally Whittle (organiser of the MADs and writer of ‘whose the mummy’ ), the lovely Kylie with her son Joshua (who slept all the way through lunch; so well behaved!) who is in the same category as the gorgeous Claire (inspirational), the not so on the brink Monica. Plus we had additional guidance in the form of Polly from TK Maxx, and I took my gorgeous irish granny (the one I found in Tescoes) to help with Little Dimples.
Did you know how much easier it is to look for a dress for your friend? Or how much easier it is to find a dress for yourself when you are giggling with someone else? This is definitely the trick to shopping! We all had our issues, for me it was the need to be able to still breast feed Little Dimples as I’m still feeding in the evenings, so I need a certain degree of ‘accessibility’. But we helped each other to work around them with ideas for different styles of dress, or gorgeous shoes and accessories, which was made especially easy with the help of all the sparkly dresses and gorgeous shoes at TK Maxx.
There was one slight problem, which was the arrival of the desserts after our lunch, very kindly paid for by TK Maxx. Seriously, these were not the kind of desserts that you could ignore; they were extremely yummy, which is maybe not ideal the week before an awards ceremony when I still have 1pound to lose. (I’m just being stubborn about wanting to hit my goal of a 2 stone weight loss by this friday).
So what did I honestly think of the clothes at TK Maxx? My dress is the prettiest dress I think that I have ever had. I can’t show you yet, but it is definitely a ‘princess dress’. So it definitely gets 5 stars from me. Plus, with a little perseverance I got a lovely bag, scarf and little coat to go with it; all for an amazingly small amount of money. So that’s another 5 stars. I don’t think I have the ability to manage kids and shopping at TK Maxx, but from now on I will definitely put it on my ‘Mummy needs an hour to herself’ list of options, especially when I want something very special without a special price.
If you do have the ability to see a bargain easily in a rail of lots of clothes and don’t go to TK Maxx, then ‘why on earth don’t you go?’. For the rest of you, do what we did. Go with mates, buy a pretty dress, and then go and eat LOTS of cake.
Big thank you’s to the girls, Sally, Polly, TK Maxx, and you guys who voted for me to be a finalist, thereby getting me a gorgeous pretty princess dress. Now all you need to do is focus on me winning on friday, and if you want to check out my likely expressions, then see the video I made last week … 4 days and counting! Whatever happens, you’ll get to see a picture of my gorgeous dress next saturday, even if I’m sulking because I didn’t win (only joking, I’m sure I won’t sulk; well maybe just a little bit!).
p.s. If you haven’t seen the advert and don’t know what TK Maxx is all about, then here it is for you. Basically, they have designer kit in with massive discounts.
p.p.s Massive discounts on dresses that were over £2000 can still make a dress £500! I picked up one dress that the eagle eyed Sally pointed out was way over our agreed price limit with TK Maxx. They did kindly offer to lend it to me, but really I did ever so well with the dress I got for 10 times less, so do remember to check the price tags, unless you are very rich, in which case; have fun!
Our shopping trip reminded me of high school, trying on dresses with my friends, and having a wonderful time. Although it was a little stressful managing J and trying on fabulous clothes. I really enjoyed it, and it was really like being a kid in a candy shop!