How to buy a winter coat in three easy steps!

You know me - I HATE shopping for clothes. I'd almost prefer getting a root canal and I loathe the dentist. I think you get the idea here - clothes shopping and me - just not a happy scene. So one must find unique ways to go shopping.

I rarely look at my cell phone when I'm at work. Often times, it's stays in my purse or one of my tote bags or my back pocket. But there are times when I keep it on my desk. Just depends on the day. So if you send a text to my cell phone during the day, I may or may not get it.  But I received an interesting text yesterday and hence the story for today's blog.

I'm not really in need of a new winter coat, so I wasn't looking. But a text that I happened to check out was enough for me.

So here's a way to buy a winter coat in three easy steps.

1. Make sure you have a group of friends who are enablers. These are the friends that send you texts about things they've seen that you might like. So for instance if they see an orange winter jacket, they might send you a text or two. Like Carol who is my most frequent enabler although now that she doesn't travel as much, she's less so. I think it has something to do with her swimming in the lake with her dogs.  But don't tell Murphy because Murphy would love to live where Carol lives!

This is what I received yesterday from Carol.

A whole rack of ORANGE jackets

 That first picture came in at 1:44.  I responded at 2:14 and got a few more pictures.  Hmm - she must have been wandering around Costco. I wonder what else she bought?

One of the labels - in French no less

 So yes, the label was in French, but I think we get the idea - this jacket is for medium cold temperatures, whatever that means. And it's insulated with Thinsulate which is good!

A few more details about the jacket

 Seams are sealed, it's water resitant, sleeve vents, powder skirt, removeable hood, hidden chest pocket and thumbhole knit cuffs - althought I didn't really read all that!  And don't say I'm so shallow that I would have bought it just because of the color - OK - so that might have been the deciding factor!

And the back - look there's even a hood!

So my mind is thinking, this would be a perfect jacket for the dog park.  It's got a hood for those days when it's really, really cold. It's bright so it'll be good for walking the dogs. I swear if someone hits me with this on, they were aiming for me!

That's all good BUT Carol saw this in a store that was about 60K from work and I don't see her that often so I couldn't ask her to get me one.

Hmm - let's more onto Step Two.

2.  Make sure that all of your friends shop at the same store and thus have a membership to Costco which I do not. I simply forwarded the picture to another enabler friend with a Costco Membership. That was around 2:43 PM.  That would be Ronda. She said she was going to be at Costco around 4 PM.  It's now 3:15 PM.  I did have an errand to do in the very same neighbourhood as that Costco so why not!

3. Get to the store. Ronda had picked up the size I thought would work. She met me at the door and we walked over to where her husband was pushing the cart. Ronda warned me about the color and OMG - I could see the jacket in his cart from across the store. This jacket is NOT orange.  Nope - not even close.  It's the most brilliant shade of NEON ORANGE that I've ever seen!!!!  I tried on the jacket. SOLD!

My new coat

I'm sorry, but the pictures just do not do justice to the color.  I think the cameras just can't capture the intensity of this color!

It's perfect for the dog park.  The lining on the sleeves extends down to hook around your thumb to keep your wrists warm!  There is an elasticed lining part that snugs around your waist to keep you back warm. It's a perfect jacket for the dog park!  I'm not going to say that I can't wait to try it out - trust me - I can wait!

And there you have it - three easy steps to buying a jacket. I think we went through all those steps in a matter of three hours!  A BIG thank you to my enabler friends!  Carol and Ronda - you rock!

Oh - I should mention that it is Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend. And I don't really care if I get turkey or not. Not big into all the celebration stuff, BUT I want pumpkin pie! And while we were waiting in line, I saw others buying the HUGE pumpking pies so I ran to the back of the store and got one!  I just need a wee bit of whipped cream (the real stuff please!) and I'm going to have a very happy thanksgiving!

A quick note - did you see that some construction has taken place on my blog?  Yep - look at the side bar on the right if you didn't already see that. Yes - published in yet another magazine. There have been others and I'm thinking you'll all be tired of seeing yet another quilt in a magazine from me!  So I'll just quietly get them posted on the side bar because there are a lot more coming!  Which I'm super excited about!

And a big THANKS to M for making the changes to the blog.  I'm really in a love/hate relationship with how busy I am and so having someone else do these changes is absolutely wonderful. I hope we can work together to get more stuff done and I know she is busy doing more so watch for those changes coming up!

It's going to be an insane weekend.  I've bindings to sew on, sleeves to make and sew on, quilts to quilt and quilt tops to make.  I've already cut out one quilt (or most of it) this morning. Another one is loaded onto the long arm and a third one that just needs one block finished, now has a new piece to replace the one I cut incorrectly and that top should be done fairly soon as well.  I'm on a roll. The only thing I didn't do was to bring home more quilt backings!  DUH!!!!   Well, I could always look through my stash, but they HAVE to be Northcott or I could go and buy them. Or I could get all the tops pieced and quilt next week.  I'll see how the day progresses!

Have a super day!  And if today is your Thanksgiving dinner - don't eat too much!

Ciao!!!!