Look at this adorable school outfit I got for Elizabeth, who starts kindergarten this fall:

Lands’ End Knit Peter Pan Shirt (photo from LandsEnd.com). It’s KNIT, so it’s stretchy for playing in AND I won’t have to iron it, and it was $5.99 down from $18.50. [Edit: Oh, pooh, I see it's sold out now. This one is cute too, but $9.99 instead of $5.99.]

Lands’ End Knit Skort (photo from LandsEnd.com). Again, KNIT. Plus it has attached shorts, which is ESSENTIAL. Plus, it was $9.99 down from $18.50.

I also bought her this sweet brown dress:
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I bought myself some little daisy earrings on Etsy awhile back, to be SMALL with my new decorative glasses (big showy earrings plus decorative glasses = head accessory overkill). They were PERFECT. Sadly, some of the petals broke off a daisy, and it doesn’t look fixable to me: the little plastic daisies were glued to earring backings, but there isn’t enough earring platform for the broken-off petals to be glued back onto.

I’m in the market for replacements, and this time I’m looking for something more durable.  It doesn’t have to be a daisy, but it needs to be small.

Daisy earrings by Nest Pretty Things Kids on Etsy. They’re $13.50 including shipping, and the petals are better designed for non-snapping-off. But do they look a little tiny bit…eggy?

Little Gull Little Leaf earrings by Anna Ruby King on Etsy, $17.50 including shipping.
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I love when I’ve been fretting about whether or not to buy something online and then I do buy it and it’s GREAT. One of my best recent successes is this skirt, which I am wearing right this minute:

Old Navy Cut-Out Contrast Maxi Skirt in 1x-3x and in XS-XXL (photos from OldNavy.com). I was especially nervous because Old Navy plus sizes can ONLY be ordered online and also can ONLY be returned through the mail. That’s an expensive fitting-room session if the item isn’t right.

But it IS right! I love it. It’s comfortable and I wear it with a plain t-shirt and sandals, just like I’d wear basic capris. I’d never ordered an Old Navy skirt before, but the fit is just what I’d expect: I wear a 20W or 22W in jeans, and the 2X-plus skirt is neither loose nor snug. I preferred the brown but ordered the dark grey because it goes with more of the colors I tend to wear, and happily it’s a much better color than I’d been expecting: it appears in the photo as if the pink color shines through the fabric in a gothy way, but it only shows through where it’s supposed to show through, in the eyelets at the bottom. A number of the product reviews mention that on their skirt the colored underlayer is longer than it appears in the photo, but mine looks exactly like the photo. I think I might have to get the brown one, too. And if you’re XS-XXL, there are two other color choices and the skirt is on sale for $19. (Plus sizes are out of luck: not only can you only buy/return online, and not only are there only two colors instead of four, but also the skirts are still $34.50.)

ONE problem with the skirt: no POCKETS. If it had pockets I’d wear it whenever it wasn’t in the laundry basket.  It’s so comfy and breezy.
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Is there anyone more difficult to shop for than a girl in that 11-12-13-14 age group? I submit that there is not. She’s not a little girl anymore, but grown-up stuff is still inappropriate. My aunt was the QUEEN of shopping for that age: she gave me teenagery perfume (it was called Blue Jeans, if I remember correctly), a narrow gold bracelet, a small leather purse with flowers on it, a hot-turquoise collar-up shirt with a long string of pale-pink plastic pearls (shout-out to 1985!).

There is no way I could choose any of those things correctly. I’d end up accidentally choosing an old-ladyish perfume, a motherish purse, fashions from a decade ago. Instead I’d turn to earrings: I’d try to choose earrings I would wear myself, but ones that don’t seem too mature/sophisticated for a young girl. And if she doesn’t like them, well, maybe her mom will. Sigh.

Antiqued Brass Key Earrings from CuteAbility on Etsy (photo from CuteAbility). Keys are romantic but in an innocent way: they manage to evoke diaries, “key to my heart,” treasure and attics and innocent secrets, without evoking hotel rooms and locking people out.
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Gradually I have become aware that the only shoes I wear are mary janes. I buy lots of different styles of shoe, and then they sit brand-new and shiny in the shoe shelf as the mary janes get worn into dust and scrap. Case in point, my current mary janes:

Clearly it is time for some new shoes. It’s hard to be looking at fall shoes when we are heading into sandal season, but I’ll be glad of it later. I already ordered these:

Dr. Martens Melinda Mary Jane (photo from Amazon.com).
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I love Valentine’s Day.  “Hallmark Holiday”?  Pfff.  It WAY predates Hallmark.

Paul and I don’t often celebrate it between us, though. Some years I’ll have a yen for a heart-shaped box of chocolates and he’s happy to indulge me, or other years I’ll use the day as an excuse to give him something that took some extra effort, like the year his favorite slippers wore out and he couldn’t find any he liked to replace them, so I researched it and found him some I thought would be perfect and gave them to him on Valentine’s Day.  Ooo la la, SLIPPERS!  Slippers are not exactly the one single perfect long-stemmed rose, but they are, for me, a better way of saying “I love you and what you want is important to me.”  (It seems to me as if the “single perfect rose” is another way of saying “I didn’t spring for a whole dozen but you have to act as if this is better.”)

But most years we don’t treat it as a couple’s holiday.  I like giving a little Valentine’s Day treat to the kids on their breakfast plates in the morning, and I like helping prepare for their classroom valentine exchanges.  I like sending valentines to my friends sometimes.  I like using valentine postcards for my Postcrossing hobby.  I like the pretty decorations:  I nearly always get a new cute mug or picture frame or plate.  And I like the way it breaks up the low-holiday stretch of winter.

I’m picky, though.  I had a boyfriend long ago who would give me, like, a red teddy bear holding an “I luv you” heart, and, uh.  I mean.  Thank you for the thought, but what IS that thought?  I have said it before and I’ll say it again:  if you want something that doesn’t look like it was grabbed from the “Oops, did you forget it was Valentine’s Day?” display at the grocery store, try Etsy.

Be Mine Little Valentine Sampler by Stitched by Julie Ellen on Etsy

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I’m too overwhelmed with the reality that it’s Thanksgiving week (OMG) to delve into the holiday gift guides we like to post here at Milk & Cookies, so indulge me in a totally random topic, won’t you? That being: the world’s coolest children’s boots. I can’t really afford to buy myself a new pair of awesome boots right now, so I’m channeling my window shopping desire into kid-sized fashions. Looking to outfit your offspring in some weather-repelling, eyeball-searingly adorable footwear? Start here:
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I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s trying to cut back on superfluous spending lately—cramped budgets! Looming holidays! Insane daycare costs! Medical co-payments! Babysitters! Pants for my son who keeps getting taller but not wider so nothing ever fits, ever!—so I thought it would be fun, and possibly even useful, to share a few of the things we’ve bought lately that have been worth every penny and then some. Caveat: these have to be things we’ve bought for ourselves, not for our kids, okay?

I’ll go first:
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Love Etsy. Love fall.  (Don’t despair if the individual item I’ve linked to has sold out:  the sellers often have more of the same item listed in their shops.)

Draft snake in “Lush” by Oh the Cuteness! on Etsy. Draft snakes help keep the chill out, but can we call them something less slithery-sounding?  Swiss cake rolls are long and thin, too.
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I know you and I live in different cities so I can’t make generalizations, but in MY city it is mid-July. STILL SUMMER. And yet all my favorite stores are clearing out the summer stuff. Some people roll their eyes at summer clearance and school supply sales in mid-July, but I say WOOOO: it’s generally right around this time of year I’m finding out that a handmedown swimsuit isn’t going to last through another kid after all, or that for some reason a child has only two pairs of shorts in his size, or that a 2-piece suit might have been a better choice.

The Children’s Place has their summer stuff on sale, plus an additional 30% off. Here’s an outfit I bought for Elizabeth for just over $10:
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