A Taste of Fall

We had a teeny-tiny taste of fall last week.

The temperatures actually dipped into the 60s during the day. Lovely. It's funny how excited desert rats get about rain and autumn's first nip. My kids grabbed for their bulky coats, scarves and mittens. Really.

To celebrate the occasion, I got to whip out a recent Gilt grab — Ever's Venice sweater, a soft, soft cotton with loopy, open stitching that's perfect for our pseudo fall weather. Also part of the schtick: J Crew herringbone field pants (I think that's what they were called), a pink Splendid tank and Simple checked tennies.

Halloween Options

Many chicks — too many — use the occasion of Halloween to dress, well, like sluts.

These cheeky Urban Outfitters' costumes pay homage to that tendency yet preserve the wearer's modesty, if not dignity. Funny.

Check out Urban Outfitters' Halloween Shop — there's some funny stuff. I still think I need to be a Peep, though.

Friday Shoe Haiku: Closeouts

Look what 3 bucks buys!
Well, actually 3-50.
Still pretty darn cheap.

Shoe n' Tell: I loves me a good sample sale. Now that Swirl has dropped its shipping prices to a reasonable $6, I pay way more attention. So, I scored during the recent summer blowout sales. These Michael Stars leather flip-flops were regularly $49. They were on sale for $5, then further discounted 30 percent. How could I not buy two pairs?

Accessory Love

My niece and sister-in-law brought me home this little treat from Forever XXI. Hot, isn't it?

The wrap bracelet has a soft, sueded, adjustable band, and the silver studs and braiding really zhuzh it up. The gray sets it apart from the usual black or brown wrap bracelet.

It's tough but girly and all fun.

Love. It goes with everything.

Cheap Thrill (That's Really Not So Good for You)

Ode to a Chocodile

There once was a golden snack cake
That really wasn't worth the diet break
But one little addition (that does nothing for nutrition).....
Wow, what a difference a dip in chocolate can make.

When I was pregnant with each of my children, I craved these.

Now, I was always a Ding Dong girl growing up. Not a fan of the Twinkies. Of course, once I became an adult and discovered real, baked goods, none of the hermetically-wrapped treats cut it anymore. Yet I still enjoyed and desperately wanted and was willing to risk birth defects for a Chocodile.

I don't know how a simple, waxy chocolate coating can so amazingly transform a hum-drum Twinkie, it just does.

Flash forward many years later and my husband — on an impulse — brings home a box of Twinkies. Youngest Child flips out, thinking they are the most awesome edible ever. I tell him he knows nothing about good snackcakes and tell him about the Chocodile. He must have one.

Well, here's the thing: Chocodiles are not so easy to find. I have only ever seen them — in individual packages — at one southside Circle K. But, there's nothing I won't do for my kids, so I set out to hunt 'em down.

Four stores, two days and one unfortunate incident that had me locked INSIDE the car (seriously? that's a safety feature? being locked in?), I had them.

I admit I am an absolute dessert snob. I turn my nose up at boxed cake mixes (unless they are for a child's birthday party in which case a cake from scratch is just plan stupid). I've also read the ingredients on all these snack food cakes, which makes me shudder knowing that, well, let's just say a vegetarian can't eat them. And yet, I still think a Chocodile is a wickedly good little morsel.

Missed-soni

Because I have kids and work and have experienced the letdown of Target's designer collaborations (except for Cynthia Vincent — that was flippin' awesome), I didn't run out on the big Missoni release day last month. I did go, though, to a few Targets that first afternoon. Picked clean.

So now that it's weeks later, returns are trickling in. While quickly flipping through the dregs at my local store, there was a cute wrap-style cami-type top that I didn't remember seeing in any of the lookbooks. It was drapey, rayon and had a cute pattern. Into the cart it went.

When I got home, I slipped it on over my head and my self-esteem quickly plummeted. It was a medium, which is bigger than I usually wear, but it fit so snuggly across my tum — and painfully gap-y at the top. And what was up with the extra flap of fabric that just hung there, without any purpose? Cute but not $29.99 cute.

I needed to alert my friends to my hidden find (why had I not seen that top anywhere in any of the marketing?) and couldn't turn it up. I looked at the tag to see if there was a product number and discovered the reason for the funky fit. It was, um, a romper.

Oopsie.

I had squeezed myself through one leg opening, which explained the overly tight fit and the weird fabric flap.

Still, who is wearing something that low on top and that high on the bottom? Sheesh.

Hello, October!

Around our house, October means two things — obsessing about Halloween costumes and monster cereal.

And to be truthful, that's not just the kids.

Perhaps it's the limited availability that makes this cereal so alluring because, quite frankenberry, it all kinda tastes the same — sweetish and vaguely cornlike.

We even did a little unscientific taste-test and it was hard to tell 'em apart. Well, hard for everyone but the 6-year-old, who has a very refined palate when it comes to treats — and has the fillings to prove it.