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Happy Friyay!  It's almost Spring and daylight savings time!!

One of my most love/hate things about being a parent is managing my kids' stuff.  Of course the shopping part is fun (and a bit of a competitive sport for me), but then you have to manage all of it and get rid of all the clothes, shoes, toys, books, gear, accessories etc. as they outgrow them (not so much fun).  And with same sized boy/girl twins (and no plans for more, and similar aged cousins) there are really no such thing as hand me downs in our family (and as third of four girls, I can appreciate this is good for them, bad for me), so its often one (season) and done.  I also find I tend to buy more gendered things for the purposes of keeping track of whose is whose than I would if we'd had singletons. Oh well.

I've gotten to the point though, where I am fairly tired of buying/dealing with crappy stuff, even it is free with all my BR card rebates or easy because it's at Target (though a Marimekko collab is coming next month!) I've found investing in better stuff (even if it means I want to resell, i.e. more work, rather than give away) is a better investment, as buying on sale (and reselling) means things end up being almost free (and not crap, win/win).

I have a long abiding live for Garnet Hill, which is a catalog based company headquartered in rural New Hampshire.  I first came across them when I lived in Boston in the 90s and the salad dressing heiress/family I babysat for always had their catalogs around (though I wasn't the key target audience back then), so I'd look at them when I wasn't working or studying.  They have great stuff in their own brand (clothing and home), but they carry other great brands too, like Patagonia.  I could just use whether a store carries Patagonia as a barometer of whether they are my kind of store.  I've been wearing them since the 80s (thank you hippie dad, and preppy mom). I especially love Garnet Hill's swimsuits, dresses, leggings, backpacks, bedding, rugs, all in amazing fabrics. They have ridiculous sales (including their sales of the day), as do these all... (Pro tip: if you let something sit in your shopping bag for a bit, they may send you a free shipping email, good for multiple purchases.)

If you like Mini Boden, check out Little Joules...  Both are British and kind of eerily similar (Joules just slightly predates Boden), but I find Joules a little more my taste sometimes (they carry men/women/kids/baby).

If you like H&M, check out Zara...  This isn't really a revelation, as they are both somewhat ubiquitous "fast fashion", the first Swedish and the latter Spanish, but H&M has many more stores in the US.  We finally just got a Zara at our closest local mall.  Their girls' clothes are much nicer than H&M.  I also think of these stores in tandem as I discovered both while in Europe in 2001 before either had crossed the pond.  I mean that jacket, OMG.  We have the most gorgeous dresses from them.

If you like Tea Collection, check out Peek Kids...  Peek recently opened (and then sadly closed) three stores in our area, but they have a good website (they are also based in San Francisco), though I prefer not buy clothes online if I can help it (another reason why I can't live in a retail desert).  I'm not a fan of clothes (kids or otherwise) with lots of words (which they do) or branding (you want me to pay you to advertise, not this one), but they do have amazing Liberty of London print fabrics (more Brit love).

If you like Hanna Andersson, check out Polarn O. Pyret (or POP for short)...  I just discovered this Swedish company when we had our getaway in Minneapolis recently (they are at the Galleria in Edina).  I started talking to the saleswoman about the similarity and apparently the real Hanna Andersson once worked at POP and then left to start her own company (and you can tell).  They've been around since the 70s, but have just recently opened a couple of US stores (also in NYC and MA (Chestnut Hill, of course)).

If you like Skip Hop (zoo), check out Beatrix NY...  I discovered Beatrix (among others) at my favorite kids' store in Osterville, MA, Pocket Full of Posies.  We got them crazy cheap tablet cases there (which we finally filled last Christmas).

Happy Shopping!  Happy Weekend!