BOUTIQUE SHOPPING

October and November tend to be prime boutique months as every weekend there are multiple boutiques where women can shop for new and unique items. The nearby Wild’s Golf Course held a boutique in November. Once I heard about it, I checked into getting a table to sell my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk, but they were already full. Since it was close by and I wanted to check it out to see if I wanted to reserve a table next year, I made plans to meet my cousins there. I arrived early and decided to take a look around. It was a top notch boutique, that was obvious. Sadly, I have to admit that I felt extremely underdressed. Who gets this dressed up to go to a boutique? I had on every day jeans, a casual knit shirt, leather jacket and medium heeled shoes, but almost everyone else had on high heeled leather boots, designer jeans, fancy scarves around their necks and big jewelry. Their hair looked like they had just left the hair salon. And to top it all off, almost everyone had a glass of wine in one hand. I really don’t think it had been that long since I’d been to a boutique that they would’ve changed that much, but I definitely felt way out of my league. After meeting up with my cousins, we browsed the tables of unique and different items for sale. I did happen to find a child’s hand made hooded fleece coat with Scandinavian looking trim, so I purchased one for my granddaughter for Christmas. No one had eaten so we took a table in the bar’s dining area and had dinner. Later in the month, I went to Shepherd of the Lake’s Boutique. This one I had received a registration form but it ran for 3 days and I would’ve only been able to be there for one day, so I had to decline. Since I had never been to the boutique before, I went mainly to see what it was like. I met my sister there and we walked through three floors of vendors. We saw many booths with items we hadn’t seen anywhere else. They definitely did a great job on marketing the show, since it was absolutely packed full of eager buyers. A fellow Beaver’s Pond author, Marilyn Jax, had a table to sell her new book, Road to Omalos, so we stopped to chat. These two boutiques were both very upscale. The main thing I got out of attending them was to definitely dress up when I go to boutiques from now on and be prepared to have a glass of wine, because it definitely wasn’t so much about what the vendors had to sell, but instead it was about the look you portrayed to everyone else. Next year I will do much better, now that I know.