Need a Dress? My Rent the Runway Review

9 years ago • 0 Comment • Go Green, Live Well

Vegas themed birthday parties. Weddings. Office holiday parties. How many times a year do we go out and buy a nice dress for an event, only to never wear it again?

Enter Rent the Runway *- a great dress rental service that stocks high end dresses that you can rent. They’re professionally dry-cleaned and repaired in between every use, then retired and sold to end-consumers at a discount when they’ve been worn a certain number of times or are no longer “in season”. (So your rental should be in good shape when you get it, they’re not rented indefinitely.)

Designed to help people fulfill their dream of showing up to an event in a Kate Spade, Vera Wang or Herve Leger dress (which might retail for $1,000 and be rentable for less than $100), I love the site for a different reason. It’s minimalist AND environmental.

Think of the number of dresses sitting in the back of women’s closets only to be worn once or twice a year… or in some cases, never again. How awesome to rent a dress instead. It takes up no closet space, it reduces the environmental strain from the manufacturing process, you would have cleaned the dress if just you had worn it anyway so the dry cleaning nets out even, and they ship it in a reusable tote bag that gets mailed back to them when you’re done. (Again, a dress you buy would have been shipped somewhere, also.)

I LOVE IT.

Another great feature of the site is the number of women who leave photo reviews of the dresses. The dresses I’ve rented had photos of dozens of women in the actual dress, with notes on their size, height and weight and how they felt the dress fit. I could easily navigate which styles would likely be flattering for my body type given that I’m only 5’3″ tall and have a long torso.

I’ve rented for several special occasions now – a gorgeous, flowy orange dress for a summer wedding in Maine, and a super fun sequined eyelash dress for a Vegas themed 40th birthday party. (See below.)

Never in a million years would I have purchased a sequin dress with a giant eyelash on it, but it was perfect for an all-out Vegas themed party. Guys showed up in everything from Hawaiian shirts to tuxedos, and there were at least five of us in full sequin dresses hanging out on the garden terrace or playing black jack. Rent the Runway meant I showed up in something besides a little black dress; which was really fun.

How it works: You choose a date and search for available dresses in your size. You can filter by occasion, sleeve length, dress length, color and other criteria if desired. You wear the dress, and then send it back by your specified date. Not sure it will fit? Make sure you read other user reviews before picking a size, and take advantage of their “free back-up size” or their $30 for an additional rental policy. I did this for an event and it was fun to have the two styles to choose from; I still spent less than $100.

If you have an event coming up, or even if you want to wear something fun and different and go out to dinner for a nice date night with your partner, Rent the Runway is worth checking out. Any time we can reduce our environmental impact AND the clutter in our closets while still looking and feeling fabulous, it’s a win-win situation in my book.

So maybe treat yourself to a fun dress to wear for New Year’s Eve, or the Holiday Pops concert in December. I try to book in advance so there’s a better selection.

Happy sequin-ing!

*Looking for my disclosure? I have no relationship with Rent the Runway, they gave me nothing to write this post. I recommend things because I love them; I have no relationship with any brands. My relationship is with this planet, and my less-cluttered closet 🙂

UPDATE – September 2016

I still love the environmental concept of Rent the Runway, but I’ve had two experiences now (out of a total of 4 rentals, so not a great track record) where the dress suddenly became unavailable and they shipped me a substitution. Once, the substitute dress was no longer appropriate for a work party and I had to find something in my closet. It happens; you’re essentially sharing a designer wardrobe with other women, if someone doesn’t return something in good condition or on time, it might not be ready to ship. But it’s a big disappointment when you reserved the perfect dress months ago, only to discover it’s not coming after all. Sometimes what they send is even better… but not always.

Our Power as Parents to Make It a Great Day

9 years ago • 2 Comments • Live Well, Parenting

Send me your questions / blog post requests! First, a little business. You may have noticed that I’m posting more frequently than usual; I’ve decided to participate in #NaBloPoMo, a November event where bloggers post every day during November. It’s a fun opportunity to post about things that interest me but might not make the cut if I’m only posting 3 times a week. It also means my editorial calendar is more flexible, and I’d love to hear from you about what types of posts you enjoy!

What would you like me to write more about? Running motivation? Race strategy? Nutrition? Parenting? Recipes? Any running questions burning in the back of your mind that you’d like answered? I’m happy to do the research and report back to you in a post! Comment below or send me an e-mail to kelly at iamrunningthis (dotcom).

And now…. super cute kids in a wagon!

As parents, we have the power to make the day wonderful for our children:

Parenting is tough. It’s so easy to get caught in a downward spiral of nagging and frustration.

I am always amazed by how wonderful our day can be when I keep calm and take the (substantial) time to gently work through all the little upsets and mishaps and squabbles the kids have. I notice a huge change in my kids when I take the time to actively listen when there are conflicts, comfort both participants, and avoid blaming and shaming.

Time is an issue: It’s hard to take the time to do it when you’re trying to get them out the door to preschool or swim class. It’s easier to hustle them into their jackets and plop them in the car still whining because 15 minutes of conflict resolution and cuddling will mean you miss half of swim class. (Which will upset them even more…) What I want to work on is taking time whenever it IS possible, and doing my best to at least remain calm and assure them we’ll work things out later when I don’t have time to fully resolve their problem in the moment.

Daylight savings to the rescue! Luckily for me, it was daylight savings time last weekend! Suddenly, the kids are up almost an hour earlier than normal, and I have plenty of time to get them ready for preschool in the morning. That meant that today, I had the time to make sure it was a great morning. I practiced being the type of parent I want to be. It took some extra time, but it was faster in some ways, too. When my 5 year old feels listened to and respected and not blamed (even when he just walked off with his brother’s lunch box while his brother was screaming “don’t take it DON’T TAKE IT” because he wanted to be ‘helpful’) then he is much more likely to run off and get dressed by himself when asked. He’s likely to assist rather than resist during the whole getting ready process, and that is a huge time saver.

I loved choosing their lunch snacks with them and seeing my 3 year old’s excitement when he helped peel the cucumber.

We ended up having a great morning, despite many little upsets. I stirred the 3 year old’s oatmeal when he wanted to, recovery time: 5 minutes. The 5 year old tried to pack the 3 year old’s lunch for him, recovery time, 3 minutes. And so on. But we made it through with no yelling, the 3 year old helped peel the cucumber, they washed their own faces, and we left early enough to ride in the wagon all the way to school and still be on time.

Here’s the hope: by putting in the time this week, when they’re getting up earlier than normal, once they adjust to the time change they’ll be more used to having positive, peaceful mornings and things will continue to go smoothly.

It’s not easy – but it’s worth it. I feel wonderful about the way I took time for them and regulated my emotions all morning to keep from acting frustrated.

Check out this fabulous parenting resource: ahaparenting.com by Dr. Laura Markham

The inspiration for all this was attending a lecture the night before given by Dr. Laura Markham. She runs the website ahaparenting.com, and is a parenting expert whose publications include an entire book on sibling rivalry. (YES!)

Dr. Markham’s site has many resources. For some similar material to the lecture that inspired me so much last night to work on my parenting this morning, you can check out these articles:

How to Stop Sibling Hitting

How to Intervene in a Sibling Fight

How to Prevent Sibling Fighting

5 Ways to Help Children Develop Emotional Intelligence Skills Every Day

Should You Make Your Child Apologize

Practicing Good Parenting: Good parenting requires practice. Every time I read a great article about parenting or attend a lecture, it renews my energy to put the effort in to be the best possible parent I can be. I always want that, but attending a lecture or reading a chapter of a parenting book helps me focus in on specific parenting tools, strategies, or mindsets I want to embody.

Every time I go to one of these lectures, I’m like the most amazing parent ever… for about a week. Then things trickle off a little. I get snippy when we’re rushing out the door and they’re not helping for the fourth time in a row. I don’t prioritize pre-emptively setting the kids up for success by getting them their snack on time or making sure there’s enough laundry clean so they can easily find their outfits when I ask them. I start to slide a little, and a little more… and next thing you know it I’m yelling “DON’T KICK YOUR BROTHER!!!” and checking the clock to see WHEN ON EARTH IT WILL BE BEDTIME. It stinks. These are wonderful little people, and there are things I can do to make our home a really fun place. I just have to prioritize them, remember them, and be a consistently mindful parent.

Idea: What if I kept my good parenting practice alive by trying to read a refresher article each week? By reflecting on my parenting practice more regularly? I’m not saying dedicate an hour each Friday to re-reading parenting books (although that would be awesome) but taking some quiet moments to reflect and notice how I’m doing as a parent. Time to recall to my mind all the parenting strategies I’ve learned that make a huge difference in my children’s day when I practice them.

Maybe once a week I read an article from ahaparenting, or even just skim through the chapter titles of my favorite parenting book, or reflect on what was hard about parenting yesterday and how I might change my own behavior to make it better next time.

It’s worth putting in the time and the effort to be the kind of parent I want to be. Mindful, calm, connected, empathetic more often than rushed, hurried, dismissive, frustrated. I want to switch my adjectives around, and it’ll mean a time investment, but it’s one that will pay off when they’re able to play together more peacefully and aren’t so attention hungry they can’t handle having me leave the room to switch laundry.

But most importantly,

They’re worth it.

Want to “Do Good Better”? Check out this podcast:

9 years ago • 1 Comment • Live Well

After hearing Rich Roll speak at the Boston Veg Fest, I decided to look into his podcast. I enjoy hearing Rich Roll speak; he’s authentic, humorous, unguarded and has a great laugh. Listening to his podcast is like hanging out with some wiser, more relaxed friend who doesn’t judge you but has tons of interesting things to say which inspire you to be a better person.

The first podcast I chose to listen to was episode 178: Doing Good Better: William MacAskill on ‘Effective Altruism; & How to Maximize Positive Global Impact’.

It was incredible. William MacAskill, a research fellow at Cambridge University, addresses the question of how we can most effectively help others. He discusses how data can help determine a charity’s effectiveness, how “administrative costs” are not always a bad thing if they increase a charity’s effectiveness, and thoughts on choosing a career if your motivation is to make a difference.

This was a thought-provoking, fascinating, and motivating podcast. If you donate any of your time or money, you may enjoy listening to this podcast episode, reading William MacAskill’s book “Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help you Make a Difference” or going to one of the websites referenced in the podcast:

Resources for Effective Giving:

GiveWell is a nonprofit website that evaluates the effectiveness of charities and helps donors decide where to give

80,000 Hours is a compilation of research and advice that helps you decide how to make the biggest difference you can through your career.

Giving What We Can encourages people to donate at least 10% of their income to charities; it’s a community you can join for additional support, and has recommendations of top charities to donate to, as well as information about effective giving.

Some questions MacAskill addresses:

Are charities tackling the right problems? Before listening to this podcast, I had no idea that there’s a more positive impact on literacy rates in poor areas of Africa if you give money to de-worming charities than if you donate used books. Kids are missing time in school because they have parasites, and the books being sent aren’t solving the real problem.

Are we doing the good we think we are with our “ethical” purchases? MacAskill has some controversial but logical concerns about Fair Trade (many of the poorest farmers in the world cannot afford Fair Trade certification, and would do better if you bought regularly priced coffee from their countries and donated the price difference) and campaigns to boycott sweatshop goods (we should elevate the standards of living in those areas so people aren’t willing to work in those conditions, not remove the viable income opportunities they have).

How much does it cost to save a life? I hadn’t thought about putting a price on a life-saved, but MacAskill estimated that if you take the percentage of malaria cases that cause death, and the percentage of malaria cases you can reduce with mosquito nets, you can actually calculate the number of mosquito nets need to be purchased to actually save a life. He put the cost of saving a life with mosquito nets at $3,500. That’s much different than claiming that one inexpensive net “could” save a life.

Yes, that’s a high number, and perhaps it makes us feel a little less happy about sending $100 for mosquito nets. But it also means we can actually calculate our difference. If you donated even 2% of your take-home income over the next 10 years, how many lives would you very likely save? Exciting, isn’t it.

What this means for us:

How could saving lives change our life? We can make an effective difference with our money, and moreover, we can measure much of the difference we’re making. As MacAskill alludes to in the podcast, it would be harder to hit middle age and think “what is it all for?” if you have a little number in your head of the number of lives you’ve managed to save throughout your working career.

Food for thought, as the holidays approach and the tradition of giving begins. Perhaps a good time of year to give thanks as effectively as we can.

This is GOOD news: This isn’t a post to make us feel guilty about what we haven’t given. This is a post to make us excited about how much good we can do with our money if we give as effectively as possible, and how wonderful it is that these organizations are doing the leg-work for us to measure how we can make the biggest difference. That’s awesome.

Happy Halloween!

In other news, Happy Halloween! We had a wonderful day; the boys loved picking out their pumpkins (if you can lift it, you can bring it home!) and we helped carve the faces based on pictures they drew. We toasted the pumpkin seeds, went trick-or-treating, and finished the evening with my favorite book of Halloween poems by Jack Prelutsky.

I hope you had a wonderful Halloween!

Note: This is the first post for #NaBloPoMo – a “blog per day” initiative based on the popular NaNoWriMo in which people write a novel during the month of November. I’ll be publishing a blog post every day this month (many of them shorter!) so check back for daily posts containing information, inspiration, and thoughts on living a good running life.

Take 10 Minutes to Appreciate October

9 years ago • 4 Comments • Live Well, My Running

Fall is here, and it’s beautiful! Have you noticed? I’m trying hard to take it all in.

Here’s something I did this morning that I highly recommend:

Take 5 or 10 minutes. Go outside. Look around. Observe quietly. Pay attention to the way the leaves on the trees are changing color. Look at the vibrant blue sky, and how gorgeously it contrasts with the bright orange and red leaves. Feel the slight crispness in the air, and notice how the brush of cold feels on your skin. Be present in this October day, this moment in your life. Think about the people in your life right now; how old they are, how old you are in this moment. Think what it might be like to come back to this moment from ten or twenty years in the future. Or even three months from the future, when the trees will be bare and snow will cover the ground. What would excite you about being in this moment, if you had just traveled here from January, or 2025?

Let’s Go Fly a Kite: Yesterday was an unseasonably warm day, and as I looked outside at the falling leaves I realized that October was slipping by us. Had I spent enough time doing the important things? I ignored the mess in the kitchen and spent an hour in the backyard swinging and kicking a ball around with the boys. Then we grabbed the kite and went down to the town green for an impromptu kite-flying excursion. It was beautiful, it was amazing, it was exactly what we should have been doing on that fall afternoon.

The dishes were still there when I got back, the legos and marble works still strewn across the living room. But both the boys and I had renewed energy from our time together outside, and Will helped me clean up every last toy and then played quietly while I finished washing dishes. The house was cleaner than it had been in days, and we were in great spirits. It was like we had created time, because we were working peacefully and efficiently and got so much more done after recharging ourselves.

And, since this is my running blog – here’s an update on my running!

My Running: I’m almost there! Sunday will be one week from the Chilly Half Marathon. I’ve been enjoying the scenery on the long runs, and the unpredictability of the weather (yes, it’s kind of fun to have the variety). One of my favorite runs recently was a long run in the early morning last weekend. I had a packed schedule, so the only way to get in the miles was to leave around 6:15 on Saturday morning. It was 30 degrees and still dark. It felt adventurous, epic, and a little crazy; which matches how running 11 miles should feel anyway. I ran and watched as dawn broke. I saw the clouds of early morning give way to breaking sunshine over a lake. I saw the bright orange of leaves being hit with a glint of early morning sun.

It was beautiful. It was a gift from running.

What has running done for you this week? What do you love about October? What excites you about your Halloween plans for tomorrow?

Homemade Pumpkin & Dragon Halloween Costumes!

9 years ago • 2 Comments • Live Well

Halloween Traditions: I love Halloween! I have very fond memories of the holiday growing up. Dad took us trick-or-treating, and we always visited some special people like my Great Uncle who gave us each a bucket (literally) of candy, and Mrs. Lopez, a woman my dad did handy-work for when he was in college.

My crafty and talented mother would ask us what we wanted to be and then make us any costume we desired. I remember looking at a picture of one of the costumes in The Thorn Witch, and getting a beautiful replica straight down to the fluffy tulle skirt with gold stars on it. Truly a magical childhood. I lack her level of talent, but she did teach me to use a sewing machine and with the right pattern and tutorial I’ve managed to surprise myself with what I can create.

Following in her footsteps, I asked the boys what they wanted to be for Halloween. I waited until the response kept being the same, and then found some easy online patterns and brought the boys to the fabric store.

My little helpers: The kids helped pick out their fabrics, approve the pattern selections, and assisted with little steps along the way like placing the pumpkin face, removing pins, and drawing different pictures of ideas for dragon spikes. My 5 year old even pushed the sewing machine pedal for me on the straight seams. (I get a bravery award for this, right? He was so happy, it was unreal.)

I’m so grateful for the number of amazing craft bloggers there are out there on the internet creating free tutorials and reasonably priced sewing patterns. What would have taken a trip to the fabric store and a lot of time flipping through pattern catalogs is now a quick and easy search on the internet. Their time, energy and creativity has improved our Halloween!

Dragon Costume: For Will’s costume, I modified a free dinosaur tail pattern by Stephanie, The TipToe Fairy: http://thetiptoefairy.com/2014/04/lets-make-dinosaur-tail/ I simply omitted the dots, added a barb to the end of the tail, and created curved individual spikes for a more dragon-y look.

I used a free dragon wing tutorial written by Louise of imfeelincrafty: https://feelincrafty.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/dragon-wings-tutorial/ Her directions were easy to follow, and the dragon wings are stunning.

Pumpkin Costume: For the pumpkin costume, I chose a Simple Pumpkin pattern that only cost $4.99 on Etsy from preciouspatterns. (I’m just sharing where I got the pattern because it’s cute, I don’t have any affiliations with this seller or these bloggers.) I decided not to make the matching hat, and instead will use a green hat. Andrew will wear a black shirt and pants under the costume for trick-or-treating. The pattern really was simple, based on two rectangles without overly complicated shaping. (Some pumpkin costume patterns have you sew individual wedge pieces together to make a more real sphere… I just am not there right now.)

Funniest moment: When Jake asked me if I had time to run 8 miles yesterday and I told him I didn’t have time because I needed to make a dragon costume by Thursday. Yeah. He moved it to Saturday for me. If I don’t have the final touches on the costumes done by Saturday, I’ll be running those 8 miles real fast, away from my disappointed kiddos.

Time to stuff the dragon tail…

Do you have any fun Halloween traditions or plans?

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