This has been a bad month for not shopping. I experienced some shopping marathons, but all done for love.
It started in the airports on the way to the US for Maureen’s wedding. I didn’t buy anything except juice and crappy food, but the whole airport experience is set up to separate you from your money. Shops market impulse purchases to tired, weak people with time to kill. Who else would buy those lame souvenirs? Disgusting. Put me in a bad mood for the rest of the trip.
Weddings require a lot of purchases. In addition to a half-day ingredient excursion to Costco and various supermarkets, there was a trip to JoAnne Fabrics for draping material, a bunch of hoop supplies purchased at Home Depot, little pots of bubbles, garden lights, and myriad other bits and bobs. And that was just Maureen’s wedding.
When we returned to Tokyo, it was time to prepare for Tracey & Ashley’s nuptials. Tracey’s hen’s party, which we enjoyed last night, has also been a buying overload. I was able to reuse some of the fabric from Maureen’s wedding to make costumes for karaoke, but I didn’t have enough time or material to make them all so a trip to the Donki discount chain was necessary. While I was browsing cheap wigs and animal costumes, I saw a man masturbating while staring at the girls buying maid costumes. This is not unusual there. Disgusting shopping on another level entirely.
Since I’ve never been to a hens/bachelorette party, I had no idea what to do. Thanks to the Internet, I decided that a crown for the bride seemed a necessity, so I made a confection of beads, wire and veiling. And we needed games so that everyone would get a present or a prize. I hit up the 100 yen shop for a bunch of “junky-dos” as my Grandmom use to call them. Prizes included origami paper, gauze towels, zebra-print stockings, roasted plums, and odd bits of stationery. Silly things that peole smiled about.
Gifts have been a troublesome aspect of not shopping. Earlier in the year, I decided not to buy any, period. But I regret that decision because it means that I didn’t send my mother flowers on my birthday like I usually do. I wish I had. For Tod’s birthday I was able to buy consumables - lots of nice bath products - but I caved in for Elliot Mason’s first birthday and got him a bunch of summer outfits from a shop. At least wedding gifts are easy; cash is definitely consumable.
I did have one spot of strength this month. I thought I would need to buy a pair of shoes to go with the coral colored dress I am wearing to Tracey’s wedding on Sunday. This is the dress that was to be the prototype for Amanda’s wedding dress. It is a fun party dress and I am excited to wear it but coral is not a color I have anywhere else in my wardrobe, so I don’t have shoes that match it. Black’s too dark; silver is too cool grey and I have no dressy white shoes. I actually went out to look for shoes but there was nothing suitable. Thank goodness! I ended up making some shoe clips for the silver shoes from dress scraps and old hair clips. The silver shoes are transformed into exactly the right thing. Shoe clips are a retro miracle.
I think the coming month will be much, much easier than the past four weeks. No weddings, no birthdays and no other events to run. I have more hoops than I need. I can content myself with refashioning my summer wardrobe if I want something “new” to play with. I only need to consider gardening expenses. More on that next month.
Posted by kuri at May 15, 2009 10:30 AM