This Week in Thoughtful Consumerism, Vol. 1

Welcome to the first volume of This Week in Thoughtful Consumerism!  I’m hoping to make this a weekly (or close-to-weekly) feature on the blog.  I’ll gather a handful of links to pieces about consumerism that made me think.  And sometimes, like today, I’ll also tell a story or two about my recent adventures in thoughtful consumerism.

The links will be a mix of old and newer stuff.  Just because something is a little older doesn’t make it less valuable or insightful!  Oldies are goodies, I say.

Onto the links!

Newer stuff:

* At Already Pretty, Sally started a discussion about how social media influence our shopping and dressing habits.  I found the comments fascinating!

* What do you think about Lululemon’s clothing quality?  And why does Chip Wilson look like he just ate a lemon in every photo?

Older stuff:

* I’m not sure if I’m heading into “austerity measures!” territory, but this post of Chrissy’s is a classic in my book. 

* There’s been a flurry of closet inventory posts around the style blogworld.  I don’t know about you, but I’m fascinated by people’s shopping and closet habits.  Here’s one from AJ and another one from Kimmie.  Style bloggers on the whole are not minimalists, but I do admire their courage to confront (and document!) their consumerism head-on.

And now, two stories from me!

* First, nothing beats hand-me-downs from your stylish sister.  I love these wedges she gave me!

Cute and comfortable!  I used to dislike the look of wedges, but now I’m quite fond of them.  When we were looking through the items that Theresa was going to purge, she cautioned me, “Now, don’t take anything that you’re not going to wear.”  I think she’d be pleased to know that I’ve worn these wedges at least half a dozen times in the last few weeks.

* And a story about not-so-thoughtful consumerism.  As you may know, Paul and I are vegetarians, and this applies to eating out as well as cooking at home.  After his dance competition in Houston, we went to the cutest café called Ruggles Green.  We were trying to sneak our dinner order into the kitchen before they closed at 10 PM, so we rushed through our plan without a close reading of the menu.  They serve an appetizer called hempanadas, and we figured that with a name like that, they must be vegetarian!  WRONG.  The hempanadas are made with a beefy filling.  (I would like to point out, though, that beef is the final ingredient listed for the filling.  In hindsight, I’m not terribly surprised that we missed it.)  Anyway, so the hempanadas arrived and Paul discovered they were made with beef, and I was terribly embarrassed.  I don’t usually make that kind of rookie mistake when it comes to eating out, but there I was.  There we were.  And you know what?  We ate them.  Because the mistake was on us, and I had to own that fact.  Paul kept offering to eat them so I wouldn’t have to, but we ended up splitting them.  Saving grace: the two sauces that came with them were awesome.  We used them as dipping sauces for the nut burger Paul ordered, and the combination was delicious.

I told that story to some friends, and one of them asked, “Well, were they worth it?  Were they delicious?”  I think what she was really trying to ask is whether beef tastes great to me, since it’s a forbidden delicacy.  And the truth is that beef is not a very exciting meat to me.  I loved the sauces that came with our hempanadas, but I was too embarrassed by our mistake to enjoy the hempanadas themselves.  Truly, I prefer beans or tofu or vegetables to beef.

Have you read any good stories lately that fall into the thoughtful consumerism category?  Feel free to share them in the links!

PS  I have not forgotten about that chocolate cake recipe I owe you.  This weekend, I promise, I will share.  So busy all the time…