Tim Foolery

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StitchFix – End of Summer Edition

StitchFix seemed like an interesting model, one that I wasn’t sure I could get behind. For those who don’t know, StitchFix is an online personal shopper.  You complete a style profile online and your personal style guru curates a box of new clothes for you.  The style profile includes not only your sizes and body type (stocky, slim, average, etc), your commute (drive, bike public transit) and even your office’s dress code.  Therefore you can be more selective than with some other subscriptions services.

August was my first box in a few months. Because of the varying levels of success with my previous boxes, I decided to take a break.  I forgot to extend the break and low and behold, a box emblazoned with the subtle StitchFix branding was on my stoop.

StitchFix Box, hiding its secrets.

The box – what could be inside?

In the Box

Being the end of summer, I was excited to see what autumn would bring in this corrugated shopping cart. The box included:

  • Faherty Casual Grey Pants
    • Slightly stretchy, great color and perfect fit.  Keep.
  • Algo Dark Blue Patterned Casual Long Sleeve Shirt
    • Love the color and the subtle pattern.  Sleeves long enough to cover my long monkey arms. Keep.
  • Penguin Black Shoes
    • The style wasn’t what I’d pick out myself, but they were indeed interesting. Meh.
  • Fairlane Black Belt
    • It’s a black belt.  I have been looking for a new casual belt. Keep.
  • Patterned Socks
    • I love fun patterned socks. I liked these socks, but the price was my biggest struggle. Meh

Initial Impressions

I initially was impressed with the box. The shoes seemed not really my style, but that’s part of the charm of this service, you’ll find things that you wouldn’t have picked out yourself, but you may really like. The pants and long sleeved casual shirt were definitely me. The pants were soft, with a little stretch and a perfect fit. And the socks. Ugh. I do dig the socks, but I sure don’t dig the price on the socks, $25?! To me, that’s outrageous.

This month's selection from StitchFix

The interesting mix of end-of-summer clothes.

The Decision

I knew I wanted the pants and the shirt. I liked the casual belt and the socks, but the price on the latter gave me pause. The shoes weren’t really me, but when doing the math, it ended up being cheaper than just getting the exact items I wanted.  Since Stitchfix gives you a nice 25% discount if you buy everything in the box, it ended up being a no brainer.  Plus I had an AmEx Offer which cut another $25 off this purchase. All in, I spent $275.25 for these five items. It isn’t cheap, but I definitely found value in this months selection.

Do you StitchFix? What is your “hit ratio” on the boxes and the content? I’m batting a bit more than 500 and the boxes seem to fit my taste better each time. I think above all, I’m getting some more diversity in my closet than I would without this service.  If you haven’t tried StitchFix yet, give it a try. Full disclosure, using my link, you’ll get a discount and so will I.

Rosemary Salt – Preserving Fresh Herbs

It is that time of year – our gardens are roaring into full production.  We’ve just started getting our tomatoes, but our peppers have been coming in for a couple of weeks and our eggplant will be ready for harvest by the end of the week.  We’ve had a great crop of fresh herbs for almost two months now.  We can’t use all the fresh herbs that we’ve grown, so we’re doing everything we can to preserve them.  I’ve been making and freezing fresh basil pesto every week now, I’ve also started making flavored salts too.  I made a half cup of rosemary salt this weekend and thought I’d share my simple recipe that is so easily scalable – make a half teaspoon or a cup, it’s the same process.

Here’s what you need to make a tablespoon of rosemary salt:

Rosemary Salt

Another way to preserve fresh herbs

1 Sprigs rosemary, stemmed and roughed chopped
1 tablespoons sea salt

  1. Place the chopped rosemary and salt in a mortar and pestle (I didn’t use the M&P, I just used a knife to chop the salt and rosemary into a finer powder

Finished product – Rosemary Salt

You can use the rosemary salt on anything and everything that could use a little pop of rosemary!  Try it as you roast some vegetables, on steaks or chicken before they hit the grill, or to finish off a salad.  Personally, we love it on pork chops.

Prepped and ready for the grill

Do you make flavored herb salts?  Do you have an easier process?  What are your favorite flavor combinations and how do you use them?