Reese | Sweet Tea Please

How about a picture of our little Halloween Rufferee before I let you in on a fashion secret?! Reese was hoping for some trick-or-treaters to bark at but we didn’t get a single one this year!!

Oh well – more candy for us!

I can promise you that there were “treats” involved to get Reese to sit for this picture! Don’t let her fool you!

Stitch Fix

On my bachelorette weekend, my friend Connor mentioned this unbelievably clever shopping idea, called Rent the Runway – and I remember all of us asking to hear more and thinking what a brilliant idea – renting designer dresses for a fraction of the cost instead of going from store to store on the never ending search for the perfect dress. What can I say? I’m a sucker for new ways to excite my inner fashionista! And a year and a half later, I still use Rent the Runway! If you don’t already, I highly recommend it but let me tell you about Stitch Fix!

I told a couple of my friends about it today and they were just as impressed as I was when I first heard about it so I figured I’d share with you!

One of the blogs that I follow, EatLiveRun , (who just got engaged btw!!) wrote a post a few weeks ago describing her first Stitch Fix experience. I had to see what it was all about for myself and let me tell you, I think it is pretty awesome!

So… what is it?! Long story short, Stitch Fix is a brand new company that sends you clothes in the mail based on our own personal shopping profile. When you sign up to receive your first “Fix” you answer a long list of questions regarding your style, body type, price point, as well as picking outfits that you like out of a line up. You pay $20 as a ‘styling fee’ for Stitch Fix to put a package together that includes 4 pieces of clothing and 1 accessory that hopefully you will like based on the answers to the initial questionnaire. It’s important to note that the $20 ‘styling fee’ can be applied to any of the items in your package if you decide to keep them! Now you have to wait until the package arrives – don’t you love the anticipation?! Luckily it isn’t too long – just a couple of days!

Once the package arrives – open it up and try it all on – in the convenience of your own home in your own closet so you have the freedom to mix and match these items with clothes that you already own! How many times have you been shopping and have gotten a shirt or pants only to get it home and decide it needs to be returned??

What was in my first Fix?! I received a plaid 3/4 length shirt, a sleeveless pink and blue dress, a black silk shirt, a green striped color blocked shirt and a paid of cute silver earrings. (sorry… iPhone photos..)

All of the items also have a description and a picture of styling options.

I fell in love with the plaid shirt and if I’m being honest, this is my favorite part about Stitch Fix.. I would have NEVER picked this shirt out for me! And it happened to be the only item I decided to keep. The dress wasn’t something I saw myself wearing in the upcoming winter months but I might have considered it in March or April. The black shirt was really cute and was my second favorite item but I own a lot of black shirts already… The green stripped shirt was a little too short for my torso and I didn’t really see myself wearing the earrings.

Let’s do the math: If the price of the plaid shirt was $55, the $20 that I spent as a “styling fee” goes towards the balance of the shirt – so all I owed was $35. However, if I had decided to keep all the items in the package, I would have received an additional 25% off of the purchase price for everything. Simple enough don’t you think?!

They include a prepaid USPS package for you to return all of the items that don’t want to keep. All you have to do is seal it up and drop it in one of those big blue mail boxes.

So you ask… “what if I don’t like anything they send me?” Well, I’m sure that is a common concern, but their questionnaire is very thorough and if you are like me, I could always use some more accessories in my closet Smile

The great thing is you can try it once and if it’s not your thing then you can get out of it – if you decide you love it, you can schedule “Fixes” as often as you would like. It’s completely up to you!

Go to Stitch Fix, check it out and sign up! Like I said, they are a brand new company and still in beta but I couldn’t help but share my exciting “shopping” experience with you!

I’d love to hear your experience if you decide to sign up!

We have a graduate on our hands – watch out world! As we were leaving puppy kindergarten last night Ryan said “I hope she finds a job soon and brings in the big bucks.” Smile

We have been going to puppy training once a week for 6 weeks now at Petsmart. Its been great for us to have someone to talk to on a weekly basis with behavioral issues or if we have other questions about Reese. We have learned a lot and I would highly recommend it for other new puppy parents.

Tonight was the final class and before the ‘party started’ our trainer set up an obstacle course for us to go through. At each cone we had to work on a different command such as sit, stay, down, and loose leash walk while zig zagging through a series of cones. Ryan went first with Reese and there was one part of the course where a treat was on the ground and Ryan had to walk her past it without Reese trying to get the treat, AKA “Leave It”. Well… Reese got that treat all right and ate a bit of it before “leaving part of it”. It was funny to watch!

I also ended up going through the course with her, second time is a charm for Miss Reese. When we got to the half eaten treat on the ground she “left it” but I’m pretty sure she was distracted by the other puppies in the class at this point.

We celebrated with diplomas, pictures, and ice cream. Reese could not get enough of the ice cream – she LOVED it! The pictures with the graduation cap, not so much..

There were two other dogs in the class, Skippy and Richu. Skippy was an older dog and it was interesting to see the kids (there were 4 of them) train the dog. We are grown adults and had a hard enough time.