My rue 21 “mini”-haul

It’s not a terribly big haul but I do believe this brings me up to thirty-one pairs of high heels now. To be honest I don’t know what to call these taupe-colored…sandals? Gladiator boots, high heels? (pictured). They remind me of a cowboy boot “heel” and a sandal since their open-toed. And maybe they fall into the chunky high heel “caged” category which are hugely popular right now. I bought the last three discounted pairs rue 21 had in stock and I’d like to thank the manager who went above and beyond and reserved the heels, faux black leather studded purse that was missing one stud so it was deeply discounted, along with a dress and one pair of earrings. I truly appreciate them doing that for me. 🙂

Do you ever carry a ‘want’ list in your purse and/ or wallet? I do. Do I ever come out of a store with exact said things on my list? Nine times out of ten, no because I find great deals that I change my mind about three or four times.

Is it taupe or “top”?

That’s a tongue twister for me to pronounce the word taupe when trying to describe a certain color of sandal or high heel. I’d always say “tan” or beige. But I’ve seen some people refer to the color as ‘taupe’. So, I bought two pairs of “taupe” open-toed heels and one pair in faux suede black with zippers.

Now about this faux suede and the “man made” imported materials I found out is actually polyester, which for the price I don’t mind wearing on my feet and I don’t mind carrying a fringe faux suede purse either as long as it’s not a shirt, shorts, underwear, or a tank top smothering my body. I always double-check those garment tags before I try on clothes nowadays. Can’t escape the man-made imported footwear, but hopefully with care these high heel sandals/ boots will last me quite some time and I think they accentuate any outfit whether it be for summer or early fall.

And I found some feather hoop earrings for $2. These are awesome and I love that they don’t pull down on the earlobe like some other heavy hoop earrings do. These feather hoop earrings are semi-light weight and they pair well together with just about any outfit. I would have loved to buy a few more pairs but will wait until another time since I believe these to be a delicate earring so when wearing these, be gentle with them. Again,  a lot of the mass-produced inexpensive jewelry made nowadays isn’t sturdy. That can be said of necklaces which is why I only shopped rue 21 for a few necklaces last year. I still have the gold bangle bracelets I bought a year ago.

I came home with a stylish pair of pink framed aviator sunglasses. And on rue 21’s $3 sale rack I tried on and fell in love with a tiny cropped jean jacket that has intentional rips and shreds on the front. Why did this tiny jean jacket call to me? It was the last one on the half-price rack. Get it, try it on, take a “selfie”. Back my day we just called it “take a picture” since the term “selfie” is a new word for this millennium. Just like “Bestie” never existed in my day. We used to just say “best” friends and never abbreviated anything. Going to the mall has been a learning experience for me and I never fail to learn something new whether it’s a new term, word, phrase, etc. Let me state that I have not been living under a rock. I very seldom see and/ or hear these new millennium phrases used everyday. Yes, that makes me so ‘old school’. 😀

I do plan to revise my want list (again for the umpteenth time). When shopping for clothes: don’t go based on online descriptions like for example, if they say, “Model wears a size ¾,” or model wears a size 0 and don’t provide height or weight measurements, go to the nearest rue 21 and try on the garments. I found from past online shopping at home experiences eons ago that trying to base my size compared to a model is vague and impossible.  In fact, to avoid disappointments don’t compare your size to what the model wears. Always try on the garments. I was very fortunate enough there was plenty of sizes of the same garments that I tried on. Some rue 21 clothes will run very true to size, so I’d recommend going one size up if the garment has no stretch to it, especially if its all cotton shorts/jeans and/or jeggings.

I seem to gravitate to the new jeggings that rue 21 just rolled out. However, it’s not so much the $29.99 price that drives me away entirely, it’s the fabric’s rayon content. Rayon is a synthetic that is chemically produced, so it’s kind of like a strand of fiber, but still very much man made fake fabric. Other than that, I love the ripped and shredded jeggings at rue 21. My only small complaint is that some jeggings don’t have functioning front pockets, either. I like to carry pocket change and my shopping list on my person so I don’t have to dig through my purse to find either one of those items.

The “Premiere” brand skinny jeans that have patches on the legs and holes they rock, hands down! 🙂 I love them and am very happy with how they look and feel and the fabric content I believe is cotton/spandex blend. 😀 These skinny jeans will set a person back about $11 total and can be found on rue 21’s sale’s racks. My only complaint is the leg opening down the calf could have some more ‘give’, but I haven’t noticed too much uncomfortable calf pain nor numbness from wearing said jeans. Yet again, I haven’t worn them for long periods since its been oppressively hot outside.

Surprisingly this year I’m not a fan of rue 21 shorts. I was drawn to an orange pair of crocheted shorts, but when I seen they were made of polyester I put them back on the rack without even trying them on. That, and I don’t think I’d look all that cool in a pair of crocheted shorts. I am a fan of acid-washed denim since it was first popular back in the mid-1980s. But there’s something different about the new acid-washed articles. Sure, they look like the original acid-washed ‘kind of’, but…. nothing beats the 1980s acid-washed look. It looked fantastic when it was in style and still stands the test of time even nowadays.

But I had a difficult time finding jeggings in the acid-washed style or any kind of jeans that fall in that specific category. The t-shirts really didn’t appeal to me, yet the funniest t-shirt I saw on rue 21’s website stated, “I’m a freakin’ ball of sunshine!” with an image of a happy face. I couldn’t find that particular shirt in stock locally. I don’t know what it was about the phrase or the image that made me laugh. Another funny saying I saw on a tank top stated, “Suck it up, Buttercup” and that was from a year or two ago.

At first I didn’t think I’d find anything at rue 21, but as I looked around my mall a few times I simply couldn’t find any other store that appealed to me. I kept returning to rue 21 due to their reasonable prices and better selection of garments that do fit me quite well.

The most mind-numbing, beyond boring, and annoying store I ventured in…

was Ross. This is a copy cat of Marshall’s and basically what it is like rack after rack of shoddy made cheap garments where the sizing is never alike. For example, you could compare two size smalls together, and one of them will be barely held together at the seams. That, or the color and size will be way off the mark. And the prices at Ross are higher than in the other places. I’ve only been in Marshall’s one time and that was enough for me. They wanted $8 for a pair of skinny jeans with a broken fly zipper. Unless you’re a seamstress, good luck sewing in a new zipper. Most basic sewing machine’s can’t handle sewing in a zipper through heavy fabric like denim. And Marshall’s pricing was confusing and outrageous I thought. Suggested manufacture’s retail price was so high and Marshall’s prices weren’t much different, either I thought.

And please don’t get me started on Dress Barn next. Even though they were closed the time I went, I took one look at their dress forms in the windows and it was more cheap garments that appeared to be picked over from various chain stores and/ or returned merchandise that nobody wanted.

“I am so going back to rue 21,” I told myself. I wasn’t expecting to find anything special at rue 21, but wound up finding my next outfits for fall and winter for about $34.00. I did step into the Buckle and was amazed to see no more shredded jean jacket vests. I considered myself extremely lucky to purchase the two that I had when they had them. I don’t particularly shop at the Buckle because it’s extremely expensive. The prices turns me away almost instantly and they don’t have anything in stock in my size as far as jeans go. I still consider the Buckle to be a rich person’s store.

And Sears? Eh, that day I wore my strappy Qupid high heels I ventured in there and my stride was very slow over those buffed cracked old tile floors. Sears is washed up, a has been actually. They have no different sizes stocked in their shoe department and the prices of their footwear is horribly over-priced. I thought to myself I could go to K-Mart and get stocked up on three pairs of fashionable fall boots for about $20 and earn reward points. And Sears undergarments were very standard “one size fits all” that I didn’t see my size in on the racks and it looked very picked over. There was one person fielding phone calls and that was it.

I left and walked in those tiny high heels for a little bit, then went straight home to take them off. High heels can cause the tendons that run down your foot to become weak, and over time, ruin your feet completely. I don’t wear high heels for long periods of time or even everyday. If you plan to do a lot of mall walking be sure to wear tennis shoes or something very comfortable.

I loved the compliments I received that day don’t get me wrong about my Qupids, but if the same compliment is repeated to me over and over by the same young man then it just annoys me. I was told that the young man would have probably wanted to ask me out on a date with me wearing said high heels which made my legs appear taller and my feet extremely small. I suspected such, but young men don’t know what they want when they’re twenty-something. And an older woman might be more interested in finding a down to earth, relaxed mature older man close to her age anyway.

Thanks for liking, sharing, re-blogging, tweeting, commenting. As always I truly appreciate it a lot and special thanks goes out to all my new subscribers. 🙂 I will keep updated with any future fashion/ hauls as well.