Wicked Thrifty Shopping Spree: Arsenal Mall

It's been a long, long time since we set foot in a mall. Secondhand only, for a long while. Too long a while. Kiddo was at a birthday party this fine chilly Saturday afternoon, and with no fiance around to complain about the browsing time in the clearance section, it was an ideal shopping day. The Arsenal Mall in Watertown, run by the Simon company like many of the Boston area malls, is certainly not the highest-end nor classiest shopping center, but it has a couple of our favorite discount stores, and we could walk to it. Theoretically. If it weren't freezing out.

The elusive grey boot we found at Famous Footwear (finally!!!). Amiclubwear never sent the suede we ordered, but did send a refund. Sigh. These Steve Maddens were in the clearance section, a bit steep at $40, but we had a $10 off rewards coupon, so really $30:


Another view:

Yummy!

In order to qualify for the $10 off we did have to find another pair to get us up to $50, and we spotted these quite-unlike-anything-we've-ever-had cone-heeled brogue-inspired lace-up slingbacks by Hot Kiss for $15:



They're a little bit Fleuvog-y and librarian-nerdy without being too over the top with the crazy heel-- this one is a bit more timeless and less daring. Love the classic slingback shape and wingtip detail, and the hidden platform. They seem very comfortable, too-- we'll see after a long day hustling around managing an office!

Filene's Basement was a treasure trove for us today...

How about a gorgeous fall coat for $7.76??


Detail:



Ahhh... favorite colors, long-beloved pattern, cheaper than a skein of the poly/wool blend yarn it's made of... yes, please. Thank you, clearance goddesses.

Also, a divine teal float-away hem cardigan by Energie for $4.16!



This silhouette seems to do really well for camouflaging a bit of a mommy belly. Necessary sometimes.

Going with the bright theme, we couldn't resist this hanging-out-at-home top by Seven in a sheer hot pink cotton/poly blend with burnout velvet detail, at $3.19:


We also picked up some incredibly comfortable jeans in a deep aubergine heathered denim. So soft, so perfect a fit-- wow. They're a bit high-waisted compared to most modern jeans, and that seems to be the idea-- they're Not Your Daughter's Jeans brand, $11.96 No low-rise. But they're not really mom jeans either-- they're crazy comfortable but fairly flattering-- no major pooch. They have some kind of space-age flattening mechanism up front. Woot! .

Following the one-in, one-out theory (well, maybe not precisely, but in this case), we're going to toss (Goodwill bag) the $10 bright purple jeans from Metrostyle ordered not too long ago, which we really never wear. This is a much lovelier shade of purple and more flattering cut.

This lace tunic from DKNYC was marked down to a criminally low $6.79, down from MSRP $90, so even if we don't wear it and end up cutting it up and refashioning it for Edge of Seventeen, it was a good investment piece:


Detail:




From the clearance bin, some gorgeous tights-- purple butterfly-embroidered fishnets, $7.98, and 2 pairs of footless opaque for $5.96:




Then, on to Marshalls, where we found another long-coveted item (joy!), the black-and-white patterned cardigan, also in a float-away hem, by Kenar, $20:



...and also a great black tiered lacy sequined gypsy skirt by Max Studio that will most certainly be re-used to create something fabulous, for $7, which did not photograph at all, sadly.

Lastly, we finally gave in (though we weep inside) to the whole granny-panty-shaper-thing that Trinny and Suzannah (of the BBC's What Not To Wear) advocate. We have a couple of shorts-shapers, but what the hell, we'll give the Spanx-type panties a try. We reserve the right to not throw out all of our lovely matching bikini/bra sets just yet :( (It seems a bit extreme). Leopard $3.99, by Native Intimates "Confident and Beautiful," Black $7.99 each, by Maidenform.



We hope this isn't too bad for the soul, owning unattractive undergarments. At least they're not white or nude. And as the girls say in "What You Wear Can Change Your Life," while seduction is not a possibility whilst wearing these, they can be whisked off in the bathroom, and the mere mention of negatory (we coined it) knickers is likely to send any potential man-friends into a swoon that will incapacitate them from noticing any potential lumps and bumps under your dress ;)

Incidentally, a wickedly-figured Spanish chick saw us browsing the shapers (she was a customer, not an employee) and basically told us, with gestures and "Comprendo, Si?" which ones to get that would help with the muffin top. With-- um, demonstrations. On both of us. Erg. She was super nice, though... but she did pull up her shirt, and pull the waistband of her leggings to reveal that she, too, was wearing said shapewear and did not in fact just come into this world rocking flawless curves. Thank you, senorita!

Total shopping high!!! Some major wardrobe holes filled, some potential creations underway, and a few staples and long-coveted items gotten for a ridiculously low price. Lower than Goodwill, much of it.

We were sad to not have a chance to hit the new-ish 2-floor F21 nor the brand-new Ann Taylor Loft Factory Store (!)... But... next time....

Hope you had some great bargains this weekend if you went shopping!

Tell us all about them if you did!

If you're from or have visited the area, have you been to the Arsenal Mall? What do you think?

Trends We Love: Lace Pencil Skirts

This month's Lucky Magazine presented an Arden B. lace pencil skirt that's absolutely gorgeous, yes, but as we recall was also very expensive (and is no longer available, anyhow). Here it is:

We absolutely adore lace in any form, and this silhouette is just awesome. But... since you couldn't have this one even if your wallet said yes, let's turn to Etsy!

$17 at Happy'sVintageCloset, marked size 12P/31" waist
(we might snap this one up, yowza!)



$24 at RetroRenegadeVintage, size small/24" waist



$7.95 at Nuttinover20Vintage, size small/28" waist
(what a price! Major sale in this shop, too...)



$20 at LotusVintageNY, XS/S/26" waist (we die at the hotness)



$24 at ModPod (with matching jacket!) xs/26" waist



$16 at RedoRedux, M/L/30" waist



For the bold, $25 at Yesterdazed, Med/29" waist
(We think this could be very modern if styled a bit differently)

While we are really big on vintage for the obvious reasons of thriftiness and environmental soundness, we did come across a bunch of other inexpensive new options via this site TheFind.com, which we'd never heard of! You can search for anything and sort by price, relevance, etc., and so many options come up... We even found our own Etsy picks here! We're a little bit confused because the prices shown are lower than those when you actually click on the items... something to do with coupons, it appears.

$19.99, BisouBisou at JC Penney


$30.80, NYC Collection at Macy's



$24.99, INC International Concepts at Macy's


$17.99-$24.99, Worthington at JC Penney

$29.99, Newport News

Do you love or hate this trend? Hope you enjoy these picks if you do like it :D

Happy Shopping!

What We Wore Monday: Orchid Hippie Chic

You can take the girl away from Shakedown Street, but you can't take the hippie chick out of the girl.

It's pouring rain and yet we couldn't resist this ankle-length tiered cotton lovely that we found at Marshall's a few weeks back for $15. Our new favorite color seems to be orchid, which isn't particularly extraordinary considering that it's always been one shade of purple or another...

The hot pink lace-trim cami underneath was another Marshall's find, discussed recently. The black top is by b-slim and was a splurge at $30 from Macy's for the bachelorette party in April.

We sported our cute new rain boots, which we scored at Famous (you may see a trend here) for $5! Down from $80 originally! They're shearling lined and absolutely perfect with their pink and purple and stars! So us. We swapped 'em for the Hot Kiss black peeptoe slingbacks once we got to work, though.

Aren't they adorable?
We were excited when wellies became trendy, since we have hundreds of days of precipitation here in Boston, but we'd hesitated to spend as much as they tend to go for. $5 was more our speed :) Hooray Famous Footwear clearance!

There's No Place Like... Marshalls

Much to our man's dismay, we were not able to stay out of the shops this weekend. It was rainy; we had nothing better to do-- and besides, we are going on vacation in a week or so and needed to round out our wardrobe! We got some lovely bright basics, like three lace-trim camis in hot pink, kelly green and this deep purple here!

Plus, as you may notice peeking out from the pants there, these amazing, gorgeous red patent pumps!

*Dies*

They were on clearance at $25! They're real leather! They're by Me Too (never heard of 'em but who cares?). We have red shoes!!! We feel a little bit like Dorothy, and they're so horrendously high as to require a change into the fake Vans when walking any distance at all, but oh how we love them.

Other scores: two t-shirts with built-in removable scarves, $7 each (two free scarves! One turquoise/black zebra, the other lilac/white tie-dye; both we'll totally wear!), quite a bit of adorable underwear and a purple bandana-print pashmina we just couldn't say no to ($7.99 didn't hurt that much).

We're wearing black corduroys from Kohl's (which should be illegal in June, but it's bloody freezing and drizzling nonstop out there!) and our little lace jacket again. We really need to find some more cardigans and blazers, stat.

We couldn't resist a little bit of matchy-matchy, so we have purple eyeshadow and red glass butterfly shoulder-duster earrings by us (one of the first pairs we ever made!).

What We Wore: Lace Overload

These pics are horrifying. Our apologies. Our man's mirror sucks even worse than ours for proper lighting. But we wanted to share anyway...


We're wearing the green lace skirt we discussed in this blog, a white shelf-bra spaghetti strap tank from Vicky's ($30 for 3-pack), and a little black lace ruffle "jacket" (really more like a cardigan) that we bought on sale also at Vicky's, several years ago- we think we paid $30, down from $79. We thought it was going to be cold (it's not) so we threw this pashmina around our shoulders before dashing out the door (TJ Maxx, for a wedding last month, $12.99).

The jacket thingy is one of the most versatile pieces we own and it was a great investment (at $30; $79 was just obscene). It can be worn as a dressy dress cover-up, with jeans, with skirts... it really just looks great with everything. It's a nice summer tattoo-cover-up for the office, as well (we have a gigantic dragon on our bicep and while they don't mandate that it be covered, we prefer not to answer too many questions about it!)

We are not wearing any of our own jewelry today (for shame!) Our earrings are from Target. Shh! (If you don't make your own, it is a great place to find inexpensive accessories... but they do tend to fall apart).

There's a lot of lace going on here, possibly an overload, but we like it anyway. Do you?

What We Wore Monday: Almost No Black Edition

We really should have taken a photo, because there is not a single internet image available that represents the fabulosity of today's skirt, found at TJ Maxx for $10. We turned it down the first time we saw it (culled from a group of several skirts), then kicked ourselves for two weeks and were THRILLED to come back to the same store to find said skirt tucked deep into whichever rack we had secreted it. Score.

We're talking fully-lined, spring-green tiered petticoat lace. Amazing. It really defined our spring look last year (and there's nothing wrong with it this year, either).

This one is pretty cute, similar, although not as voluminous. It's available online from Firebird Clothing in the UK for 28 pounds... ~$41 as of today...

We paired the terrific skirt with a bright pink sweater. This is not a color combination we would normally go for, but because we'd been dying to wear this hand-painted silk scarf our boss brought back for us from a trip to China-- it has bright green leaves and big pink flowers-- we went for it.

The sweater we found for under $20 at Filene's Basement- it's similar to the one at right (unfortunately sold out) from Target... We really enjoy the boatneck detailing-- anything a little "different," you know... and they do still have a few nice pink sweaters on clearance like this one in plus sizes, this one in deeper pink, and this one, too, all $25 or under. We are definitely not above Target clearance for essential pieces!

We capped off the floral motif (from the scarf and floral lace) with these adorable rose-applique boots we bought on Etsy... Black boots are a subject for another day... one might say (our friends might say) that we have a terrible addiction and one can only own so many pairs, but we so enjoyed the ribbons cascading from the lace today. Hooray for girly details!

What we're wearing today: Victorian Edition

Today is a "professional dress" day at work, which means that Houston, we have a major problem. You wouldn't say that "conservative" is a part of our general repertoire, but our boss actually said "wear THE MOST CONSERVATIVE THING in your closet." Technically, this would be an interview suit, but technically we are also NOT a size 8 right now and so technically we'd be busting out of said suit. So, the hunt was on for an outfit to cover up all of our naughty bits but not make us look like one of the Duggar girls (shudder)...


We chose an ankle-length black linen skirt with a drop waist and ruffles at the hem, quite similar to this one from Organic Bouquet (although without the drawstring). We absolutely adore ruffles, especially in black (again, the whole "punkish girly girl" thing is our favorite). They add so much texture and interest to what would otherwise be such a plain and, yes, conservative, look. We got our skirt at either Marshall's or TJ Maxx (oh, the love!) for under $20. If you have the time and patience to pore over the racks, you can find such incredible pieces, especially beautiful fabrics for a fraction of their original cost, like silk, linen and cashmere.

Up top, a plain black long-sleeved crewneck from Mossimo at Target, from the clearance rack, less than $7. We don't understand paying a lot of money for a T-shirt; therefore, we refuse. Our cleavage hasn't been this covered up since it was snowing- we keep checking to make sure it's there!

And over that, a simply divine burgundy velvet blazer with yet more ruffled trim... ours is from Kohl's, Apt. 9 brand, and was deep in the seasonal clearance racks at $17! We are still kicking ourselves for not grabbing the black one, too.

We absolutely adore a nice tailored velvet blazer... especially one with princess seams, "locked and loaded" construction (as Stacey and Clinton would say) and beautiful feminine detailing. We found this beautiful vintage piece on Etsy...

At $44.00, it's a bit of investment to us, but it really does look to be in pristine vintage condition, and look how gorgeously it shows off the model's curves! Yowza!


We also spotted this absolutely incredible equestrian-courtesan-gypsy-inspired corset jacket on a site we'd never seen before, Chinatowner, for $55. It's polyester, which is sad, but still, we're fairly sure we might die if we don't own this soon. Oh, the lace, the satin ribbon, the flared hem and bell sleeves, the *drooooooool*