Esther Brady Crawford - faintstarlite

This past weekend was exhausting… and completely worth it all.
Amidst the chaos I got to reconnect with old friends and meet lots of new ones, which is truly the heartbeat of BlogHer and why each year for a couple of days the blogosphere quiets down as women hang together IRL.

The weekend began at Sears Holdings where I took part in a personalized styling session with Susan & Janice, Stephanie and Jennifer. Originally I was one of the organizers helping to facilitate communication between the ladies and Kmart but was then invited to participate too. So, with a bit of fear & trepidation I accepted. Why pray tell would I be anxious? Well… out of all the lovely ladies I was probably the most leery about having someone else pick out my clothes – after all, nothing seems to fit right, and I’m just not fully comfortable with my in-between-pregnancy-and-goal-weight body. Plus, I haven’t really shopped at Kmart since I was a kid and have never bought clothes there as an adult. Truthfully it wasn’t until I met a couple of the designers (including Theresa and Rick) whose passion is contagious, that I started to think that perhaps the styling session wouldn’t be too painful. Turns out, I really enjoyed the whole process!

I worked with Kathy, who happens to not only be my exact height (4′11 & 3/4″), but is so sweet and stylish (and wears what she designs!). It was obvious she was all about making sure I felt good in the clothes & I was pleasantly surprised by her picks. I didn’t love every item – but she was spot on with most of it. One outfit in particular struck my fancy: a yellow beaded tank, with a grey cardigan & slightly flared jeans… all for under $45. (see photo on top)

I’d compare the quality to Kohls or Target, but the outfits they put me in all costs less than I’d expect to pay at those stores. I know at the Design Summit Theresa mentioned that they were putting a renewed focus on fixing up the stores’ design + layout; I hope that does happen because the in-store experience is still incredibly important to me. My takeaway from this: they actually do have cute clothes at a low $$$… but I’d like to feel better about walking in to a store, so til then, I’m more likely to use kmart.com to shop for good deals.

Oh… and they also gave baby Jude some new digs. My favorite being this two piece outfit for $4.80. No joke. That’s less than five bucks!

Below is a short video of the styling session – definitely worth checking out (& not just because I’m in it, ha!).