We are having a pretty girl power heavy week. See everything we’re obsessed with in this week’s And Then We Tried obsessions.

Michelle

Westlake Liquidation Store

Did everyone in Cleveland already know about this? There is a storefront near Detroit/Dover Center in Westlake that is full of Amazon returns and Target returns. And everything is $1. At least on the frequent $1 sale days. So on Sunday I made a pilgrimage and stood outside with a crew of bargain hunting ladies (Hannah was there) for about 20 minutes waiting to get inside. They had a ton of recent Target vases, frames, and decor items. I got these earthenware vases, in large and small, each for $1 and they are still on the Target site right now! I also got a couple of these red + navy vases/planters for my sister. I guess the owner buys truckloads of returns every week or month and then offloads at this shop. It’s definitely worth a look for random decor items. Tips: check the Facebook first to see if you can spot anything you want in the pictures, bring cash, and bring a big bag or box for hauling out your finds.

Your Local Girl Gang

Your Local Girl Gang

I just found out about Your Local Girl Gang through a Cleveland bloggers Facebook group and I love what’s happening! It is a directory of women-owned businesses in Cleveland and is a great way to find girlbosses to support! You can submit your business or another boss lady’s business, too.


Robin

Ellevest

obsessions ellevest

This January I have officially been investing for ONE YEAR! And I know what you’re thinking, “I don’t have the money/time/resources/knowledge to start investing.” But trust me, regular old me did it; you can too.

And I have to say I love the investment firm I use, Ellevest*. They are tailored for women because if 2017 didn’t point it out for you, we’ve still got a long way to go. Like it shows above, 86% of investment advisors are men with the average age of 50. Ellevest is switching it up, led by boss lady Sallie Krawcheck, who has a badass resume of working for Citigroup, Bank of America, and being one of the most senior women on Wall Street. PLUS they are designed with women’s needs in mind aka our salaries typically peak earlier than men’s and we typically live longer than men. Which means we need our own strategy for investment.

I encourage everyone to go look into a few investment firms. Maybe you prefer sitting down with an advisor, maybe you prefer to invest digitally and find what is right for you and get started today. Because it’s not only a wage gap we’re fighting, it’s also an investment gap that could cost us a couple hundred thousand to a million dollars over our lifetimes.

Check out Sallie’s book, Own It; The Power of Women at Work and Ellevest’s resource for why investing for women works.

*Not sponsored, just genuinely love and believe in it. 

Other Badass Ladies

obsessions city girl coffe

Now that I’m on my soapbox, let me take this opportunity to shout out other ladies who are disrupting their fields:

From The Broadsheet: “Women do 70% of the work in getting coffee to market—but often miss out on the profits they help create. That’s one reason why City Girl Coffee Company, run by Alyza Bohbot, gets its beans from women-run farms and cooperatives and donates 5% of its profits to organizations that support women in the coffee industry.”

Also from The Broadsheet: “This Friday, 39 of the gowns and tuxes worn at the Golden Globes by celebs like Zoe Kravitz and Tracee Ellis Ross will go up for auction on eBay. All proceeds will go the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which, as regular Broadsheet readers know, connects victims of sexual harassment with legal support.”


Hannah

Dark

dark netflix and then we tried obsessions

This week Zac and I have been watching the Netflix series Dark. I had heard it was like a heavier, German Stranger Things and that description isn’t too far off. It follows the disappearance of a teenage boy (and then, SPOILER, more boys) in 2019. However, the full story follows four local families over three generations, so the character relationships can get a little complicated. I’ll admit I had the Wikipedia page with the character listing open for a bunch of the episodes so I could keep everyone straight. If you liked Stranger Things, you should give it a watch!

Girl Gang Fight Songs

This week I got VERY into Kesha’s song Woman. Please listen (if you haven’t already) before proceeding.

Basically, every time I listen to this song I want to assemble a girl gang, put on a leather jacket, and take to the streets. It’s inspired me to update my circa 2011 girl power playlist with some more tracks. Hit me up with your girl power anthem suggestions in the comments!


This has been another week of And Then We Tried Obsessions, where we share whatever we’re obsessed with each week. Let us know what you’re obsessed with this week in the comments and if you see anything in the wild that you think we’d be obsessed with, be sure to tag us @andthenwetried or use #ATWTobsessions

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and then we tried obsessions 01.19.18

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Attaching a wood fence to a chainlink fence

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and then we tried obsessions 10.19.18

Obsessions: 10.19.18

You wanna know what we have been decidedly NOT obsessed with in the past month? The blog. Womp womp. We’re hopping back in this week, but we’ll be posting a bit more sporadically for a while. Here’s hoping you all loved getting caught up on Michelle’s driveway gate plans yesterday. See what else we’ve been obsessed with in this week’s And Then We Tried Obsessions.

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