The backstory: NAS is a major tradition in our family. For many years my lovely MIL would take all of the women in our family, her two granddaughter, her daughter and me, to the sale and buy all of our birthday and Christmas gifts. We would take over a bunch of dressing rooms and she would oversee the whole thing from her chair at the entrance. Then we would all go to lunch at the Nordstrom Cafe and collapse for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, this is all too much for her now, so she sends us out with a spending budget and we email her all of the photos when we are finished. My daughter also moved to the DC area earlier this year and we had to spend our first NAS apart. So we did the whole sale via text! Her store opened at 7:30, and since I live in the Chicago area, she shopped while I got ready for the day. Then I shopped while she checked out the rest of the stores in her mall. (She had taken a vacation day in honor of the sale).
The purchases: She was mainly shopping for clothes for work, plus a few casual tops.
1. 6:30 am in Virginia. My DD is all ready to fight rush hour traffic and buy some clothes!
2 & 3. The Halogen belted skirt with a Vince Camuto bubble sleeve sweater and a Vince Camuto houndstooth sweater. She said the bubble sleeve sweater looked much better in person than it does in this photo and she just loved the red skirt.
4. Vince Camuto ruched sleeve mini-houndstooth blazer and Vince Camuto pin tuck top. She loved the blazer because last years longer blazers just overwhelmed her and she felt like she was playing dress up.She said the blouse was very nice but she decided it was too similar to items she already had.
5 & 6. Two casual tops: the Caslon twist front tee and a 1901 ringer tee that are both good for casual wear now that she has moved to a milder climate.
7 & 8. Eliza J pointe sheath that she can wear with a blazer to work and for dressier events after work.
9 & 10. All of her purchases including a Caslon blouse that she forgot to take a picture of but that she said was wonderfully soft.
11. Blondo Vinny booties to join the Blondo moto boots from last year's sale that are one her favorite pairs of casual boots to wear all winter.

Now for my purchases. My winter days consist of taking care of the house, running errands, shoveling snow, and walking my dog twice a day. My main priority is to stay warm and feel fashionable instead of frumpy. However, I can't justify spending too much on any one item since there is always a chance it will get damaged during my day. This year's sale was all about replacing some jeans and finding new sweater and cardigans.
12. It's 8 am in Chicago and my turn to make the trek...
13 & 14. The contenders including two halogen puff sleeve sweater that I didn't end up buying because they were just a little too thin for my needs.
15. B.P. color block sweater in an XS. I assumed I would need a S but they were already sold out. Finding out I needed a smaller size became the theme of the day. The knit is a bit rough feeling and it will probably pill but I like the colors and for the price I can add a little toffee color to my wardrobe for the winter.
16. Halogen stripe sleeve frayed edge sweater in an XS. I was just trying this one on for size because I own a similar navy sweater and my store didn't carry the grey version. I'm glad I was able to try it on because, once again, I needed it in a XS instead of my standard S. The sweater is much softer than the BP one and part of me is considering duplicating it in navy.
17. Topshop long cardi in US 2. I had high hopes for this because of the color but I felt like it just overwhelmed me and this is the smallest size....
18. Halogen Varsity cardigan in a S. I was considering going down a size but my DD thought this had just the right amount of slouch without being oversized.
19. Madewell Ryder cardigan in a S. I have been looking for a navy cardigan forever and this is exactly what I wanted.

I am also wearing the Wit and Wisdom ab-solution ankle skinny stretch jeans in grey in all of the pictures. I have been trying to replace my grey jeans for two years and was happy to find this pair. I also got a pair of the Kut from the Kloth Diana skinny jeans, the Blondo boots and two of the ringer tees. I can see that I pretty much have my winter uniform set!

If you are still ready this mini-novella - I thank you. My family has so much fun with this sale that I just wanted to share.