Shopping @ Largest Mall in Canada!

My sister and I headed to the largest mall in Canada today to do some shopping! She wanted to hit up some of the summer sales and who am I to say  no? Besides, they often get the good stuff in that the other smaller malls don't! 

We got there super early to beat the crowds, and in true Canadian fashion, had our tea and pastries at Tim Hortons across the road. 

At Anthropologie, I had a few returns which resulted in a store credit. Apparently they have a "new store policy" in which returns cannot be paid in cash if I used PayPal. This must be fairly new as I have never had any problems with this before! But it's okay, the sales racks were out ... I found two new tops and a hoodie for cheap. The tops were of their "trapeze" style which I'm sure looks good on very few people, but the material was very nice (80% cotton with some stretch and other magic), so I bought them with intent to do a bit of a hack job. There was also a dress marked Size 12 in a black straight style with a hem to neck zipper, which I thought there was NO WAY this is a size 12, even though the tag on the dress and the paper tag told me they were. Well, whatever size 12 they were, it was more of a UK12, because it fit me nicely and I got it for a song (haha, couldn't find the link though for Finds!)

We have a newly renovated "lifestyle" H&M - which I suppose means that the store is now HUGE and they also have a "home" section. They have all the H&M stuff I found online that I couldn't find at my local shop! They had skirts of a reasonable length! And fabrication! AND POCKETS. POCKETS. I also picked up a bright magenta dress because I loved the colour, and it's definitely within my comfort zones for colour, but something I don't have in my wardrobe right now.

I did miss out on the matching top with the skirt, as shown in picture 1. The sales lady INSISTED that they had it in store, but despite having multiple people look for it, it doesn't exist. It sure doesn't exist at my local store either, so I may be out of luck for this :( Too bad we don't have online shopping in Canada!

For lunch, we had sushi and vietnamese spring rolls! And by the time the crowds had come, we were done our shopping and on the way home. :) 

It took me about 2 hrs to "Untrapeeze" the tops, but I think they're much more versatile now. About 30 minutes of that was trying to trouble shoot my sewing machine because it kept on "birds nest-ing" the bottom thread; had to completely take things apart and clean it up; and now it works fine. 

And that concludes the brilliant adventures of me and my sister. And my shopping budget for July is dead. HAHA.

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9 Comments

  • greycat6 replied 9 years ago

    Great finds,Lyn*!  Looking forward to seeing your handiwork with the tops. 

  • kkards replied 9 years ago

    there is nothing like shopping with your sister! sounds like you had a great time, and it certainly looks like you got some great goods. can't wait to see it styled and in action!

  • Echo replied 9 years ago

    I love Timmy's. And isn't it the best when they have items mis-tagged or sized radically wrong? The item invariably ends up on a clearance rack because everyone who picked it up thinking it was a US 12 was disappointed, and anyone smaller never even picked it up. I once bought a beautiful red wool coat that way, except the opposite way around. It was marked as XS when in fact it was more of a medium, and I got an amazing deal. 

  • Windchime replied 9 years ago

    Shopping with your sister-- what a great thing!
    I tried on the H&M navy sleeveless shirt. I liked it a lot but ended up leaving it in the store because at this time I need pants more.

  • Alana in Canada replied 9 years ago

    Wow! What an amazing day. I think I would faint dead away if I bought that many things all in one day!

    I need to get to that H&M homestyle store--but the whole Target fiasco has kind of dampened my enthusiasm for American retailers opening here.

  • Gigi replied 9 years ago

    Hmm, maybe you should sign yourself up on the No-Buy July program? :)

    H&M (at least the ones here) is so disordered that I'm not surprised the SA was mistaken about the matching top.

    How did you untrapeze the tops? Did you just take in the sleeves and torso?

    Can't wait to see your new finds in action!

  • bella replied 9 years ago

    I am very jealous of this lifestyle H&M. Sounds like you found some amazing things! 

  • lyn* replied 9 years ago

    @ Greycat - It took a bit of doing, but they just look straight fall tops now :)

    @ Kkards - There sure isn't, especially if it's MY sister ;)

    @ Echo - Wow! That sounds like quite the story! I can imagine quite a number of frustrated size 12 ladies trying to squish into that dress! I did struggle with fitting into that stupid "M" at Zara which was really an XS. So I guess I feel their pain too.

    @ Windchime - Indeed, pants can be very important. I really liked the blouse, but there was one in store with a hole in it because of shoddy sewing; gotta be careful at the H&M.

    @ Alana - There's an escalator for shopping carts at my Target. It's seriously amazing. That's the only thing that's amazing at Target. My sister wondered why anyone would need a shopping cart there?

    @ Gigi - I flipped them inside out and traced a blouse that I knew fit me well that fell straight up and down. I left room for boob darts and just traced. Darted if needed. Stitched and reinforced, trimmed away the excess (quite a bit of excess!) and reinforced it again. 

    @ Bella - It's like Lifestyle Anthropologie except affordable!

  • Thistle replied 9 years ago

    Great finds. Sounds like you and your sister had a blast!

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