LA (Shopping) Story

Even though we're less than two hours from Los Angeles, we don't get down there very often, mainly because of the dogs. I hate leaving them alone all day, and it's a lot of trouble to board them. But we happened to have a dog-sitter Saturday, so we took advantage of it and went for a drive.

The destination: the Westfield Century City. I had never been there, but it has some stores I've been wanting to check out in person and some I hadn't been to in a long time. Plus I love that part of town.

First stop: H&M. The only H&M store I'd been to was in London, and I was dying to visit one closer to home. And I wasn't disappointed—it was full of affordable goodies.

Erik said no to this dress (that's kind of a big deal, 'cause he almost never says no):

But these pretty frocks went home with me:

On the way to Madewell, we took a detour into Teavana, and I fell in love with two very different tea sets. This one in classic white with a bit of simple flourish:

And this, in all its gilded glory:

I love the idea of afternoon tea (must be the Anglophile in me), and I'm sure I'd make use of either of those sets. If only...

After a brief (and underwhelming) stop at Zara, I made it to Madewell:

I was so excited to finally visit this store in person, and I loved everything—every. thing.—including the displays of vintage clocks and cameras:

The problem was that just about everything I picked up was made in China, and I try not to buy things that are made in China (I plan to blog about my reasons for that some time). So that was a bummer, because I found the most adorable (and affordable) set of rings. Not to be.

Then we wandered over to The Container Store. Organizing is one of my favorite activities, and I get all giddy in stores like this. I found these cute wall panel sets for $10:

They come in black and white and different patterns. I want to get some, but I really don't know what I'd do with them. I'm sure I'll come up with something. (Ideas are welcome!)

After a few hours of shopping, we headed east to Canter's for dinner.

I had my usual—a corned beef Reuben:

I don't normally eat red meat, but I make an exception for a good Reuben. And that was so good! Then we had dessert:

And, of course, before we left I had to stop at the bakery for a few goodies to take home:

Then we headed home. Leaving LA is always bittersweet. So many memories and so much to look forward to.

I hope you enjoyed my mini-tour of LA. I'm sure there will be more in the future.

Where do you like to shop? I'd love to hear about it!