Cheryl Shops

Updated February 2025. 

It's funny to think that I started wearing Spanx pants only a year ago, because my collection has grown exponentially in that time—it started with perfect black ankle pants, then the faux leather leggings, every pant in navy, and even activewear. I wear Spanx pants several days a week on average; I love that they're comfy but polished-looking, e.g. it's not totally obvious that I'm wearing leggings. But now I'm starting to go out more and want to look like I'm not wearing leggings, however I'm also carrying around 5 extra pounds of pandemic weight and wearing hard pants is, well, hard. Enter Spanx jeans. They look like traditional denim but definitely don't fit like it. If anything, they're even better than jeans—they're a gift from the gods. Here's my honest and unfiltered review of Spanx flare jeans and Spanx skinny jeans.

In case you missed last week’s post, we recently spent a week on the Big Island of Hawaii and it was pretty much amazing. We had booked the trip months ago, soon after I started a new job that was a bit more stressful than I'd anticipated, and to be honest, the thought of a relaxing week at the beach got me through some pretty rough weeks. Of course, a week before we were due to leave, the governor of Hawaii issued a plea for tourists to stay home until later in the fall due to rising Covid rates and full hospitals; after some thorough investigation and a pledge to spend as much time outdoors as possible, we decided to go anyway. (We were far from alone, by the way.) Here’s what we did on our blissful trip to the Big Island.

 

If you've subscribed to my newsletter, you know that I'd been looking forward to our Hawaii trip for a long time. You also probably know that I've been on a pre-vacay spending spree. For one, it had been a year and a half since we'd taken a proper vacation, and over three years since we'd gone somewhere tropical. I also think, deep down, I miss not spending money on dress-up clothes for specific things and I had a lot of pent-up money to burn. I tried to shop (somewhat) responsibly, but may have gone a weee bit overboard. At least—fingers crossed—I'll be able to wear everything on our long-postponed trip to Europe next summer. But in the meantime, here's what I wore on our Big Island vacation. 

There are two kinds of people: those who get excited for fall in August and those who don't. When I lived in NYC, I was in the former group—by August, the city would get unbearably muggy and smell like hot garbage—but now that I'm on the West Coast, I'm the the latter, mostly because September and October are usually the warmest months here. That said, I do love fall clothes and shoes, and my point in all this is that Labor Day sales are generally a good time to get an early deal on fall-forward clothes and accessories. The silver lining is that it might be a month or two before you can wear them, but aren't some things are worth waiting for? I'd say yes. Here are some Labor Day sales worth checking out. 

Nothing I'm wearing here is on sale, but my bag is a pretty good deal ;)