Perfect day. Sent the kids to school and then headed over to Kitsilano for some solo time. After a stroll along the beach and a hike up Yew, I earned my double baked almond croissant and latté and sat down for a late morning meeting at 49th Parallel before loosening my laces for a wander around Fourth Avenue.

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My first detour was to Beauty Bar. Despite the knowledgeable and friendly service, I didn’t find the lipstick I was looking for, but I did splurge on a bottle of Clean hair fragrance. It was a more affordable $55 alternative to the bottle of perfume that I really wanted but couldn’t stomach at $120.

Lululemon – just across the street from 49th Parallel – had some new stock that I wanted to check out. There is always one new colour that you can’t live without: right now I love the ‘Ivy’ lulu remix hoodie. But I resisted adding another hoodie to my already massive collection and bought a pair of much needed socks instead. For the record: Lululemon makes great ankle socks.

Next, I headed to Wear Else? to check out shoes. I grew up in Kits, and this opened when I was a kid. My mom shopped there on occasion, and I loved going in there with her. I remember that I couldn’t wait to be a grown up whenever I was in that store. When I went in today it was just as elegant as ever. I adore it, but it can be a little intimidating in its sophistication. There were lots of nice shoes but I was distracted by a black cocktail dress ($450) that I was dying to try on. In the end I chickened out, wary of drawing attention to myself by asking for a changing room. I always feel vaguely as if someone is going to stop me and ask me where my mother is.

Back down the hill, I fell for a Soia & Kyo coat in the window at Spank. I stuck my head in to ask how much it was and the sales girl said “Oh, the Audrey Hepburn one?” Nice move – pulling the Hepburn card. Yup – it was perfect, and $359. It was an angel and devil on the shoulder moment, and I’m too embarrassed to say what happened next.

Poked around Moule for a while – gathering Christmas present ideas. I saw a few things in the home section that would make lovely gifts. I couldn’t help but gawk at the gorgeous Laura Zindel ceramics with the bug patterns (great stuff) and then drifted toward the women’s clothing section. The clothes at Moule are at the edge of my price range, but they are gorgeous and always unique. They are the kind of clothes that have to be tried on rather than assessed on the hanger, and so I donned a few cute dresses. Sigh.

I am always on the hunt for new music so I went in to Zulu to buy Yeasayer (based on a recent Scout suggestion by Jen Mayer) and quickly lost myself, moving from one section to the next. Before I knew it I had a great big exciting stack of new music. Typically me, I put most of it back and scribbled down a “to buy” list to come back with after Christmas.

I’ve been a Blundstone girl ever since I first traveled to Australia, so I took a quick whirl around the Australian Boot Company store. The thing about these boots is that they last forever and the ones I am wearing right now don’t need replacing, six years later. I did pick up some boot polish and drooled over a pair of suede ones (not literally – that could mark the suede) that I’ll be adding to my wish list.

And then my brief furlough came to an end and back home and to the kids I went, a little bit poorer but feeling a lot richer.