Shopping and Eating

One of the nice things about being at home is that there are lots of places to shop. There are two fantastic malls less than a 15 minute drive (without traffic) from my parents' house. The are plenty of little shops in each suburban down town. They are also about half an hour from the largest mall in Illinois and the new Fashion Outlets of Chicago.

I loved the murals at the new fashion outlet mall.

I went home with a mission, I wanted to replace my broken watches and I wanted to check out the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale in person. I am also always on the look out for shoes that don't hurt my feet.

I managed to get a new watch that was just like my old watch, a new pair of shoes, and a dress. My mom bought me a ponte blazer from the Talbots sale and a blouse from Coldwater Creek. I guess I'm a grown up now because I think most of my new clothes come from "mom" stores.

Country Classics in a little strip mall.
A hidden gem.

My favorite place to stop in when I am home is Country Classics in Glenview. They carry almost all the brands that preppy bloggers write about except for the "Southern" ones. I tried on some new fall Lilly Pulitzer there (the Charlene dress will be mine if I find a job after my temporary position ends). And, I got an Elizabeth McKay dress in a Hydrangea print that marked down 70%. My mom was not a big fan of the dress. (I haven't worn it yet, as soon as I got home a loose button on the back fell off! So I have to fix it before I can wear it. It was 70% off.) They also have an assortment of headbands for girls and women. They have monograms! It's really my kind of place. If you're in the area and you dress like I do, you MUST stop in.

The line to get into Tory Burch.

One one of my last days at home my mom and I went to check out the new Fashion Outlets--I told my mom there was a Tory Burch outlet store there and she was good to go. It had just opened that week or the weekend before so it was pretty crowded. There were lines to get into some of the stores so we didn't go into Coach or Tory Burch even though my mom was interested. We are not queueing people, we don't have time for that especially if we're just interested in browsing.

Even though it was an outlet mall, somethings were still very expensive like the Barney's New York Warehouse. I guess when something starts off costing thousands of dollars it can only be marked down so much. I enjoyed Neiman's Last Call. I got a wonderful pair of flats for work there.

My second favorite part of the mall was the high tech parking garage! There was a light above each parking space and it turned red when someone was in the space and green when the space was available and there was a real time count of all the open spaces on each floor and in each aisle! The 21st Century has arrived!

My favorite part of going home is eating really good food. In Maine, there are no gyros to speak of. Sometimes you get lamb patties in pita bread. But no real gyros like the ones above. The Chinese food is also kind of weird--I can't really describe how it's different but it is. I ate deep dish pizza, ribs, and gyros while I was home. I brought back several pounds of Vienna Beef Hot Dogs as well. I wish I could have brought back some apple cider doughnuts from the apple orchard we used to go to when I was a little girl. Food is one of the things I miss most from home.