High on Bargains

Oh.My.God.

We went to Raspberry Beret. It was amazing. Truly. We're still a little light-headed.

The boutique is beautifully and absolutely perfectly arranged-- by color and size! We could just die. The entire place is gorgeously decorated, from the giant vintage mirror to the dressing rooms filled with silk embroidered throw pillows and wrought iron hooks... Just a pleasure to be there and take in the exquisitely designed wall displays. But the clothes, of course, are the main event...

Pictures will follow but we just had to post about what we got, right this moment.

8 items, $102.00 (most things were marked down further than the price tag because they had been at the store a certain amount of time! Score!)

Lace plunge-neckline evening gown, $16
Forest green faux leather megahandbag, $17
Black & white floral a-line skirt with ribbon belt, $8
Black tiered crochet-trim summer skirt, $10
Black chiffon-trim beaded shantung skirt, $15
Multi-chain teal & turquoise glass bead necklace, $17
Purple suede pointy-toe pumps (marked 6 but fit my 7 feet perfectly!) $14
Turquoise lightweight boatneck sweater, $5
We are so absolutely thrilled and can't wait to drag our man back to the store (haha). A bonus for him, they had a lovely ottoman between the fitting rooms; a provision he calls the "man corral" and one that we rather enjoy for its prolonging of the disinterested shopping companion's patience!

We have no idea to what event we'll ever wear the nude-with-black-lace-overlay evening gown, but it fit so magnificently and was so inexpensive that we had to have it. Surely we'll go to some sort of fancy event someday? It is a classic style, with a tulip skirt and some serious decolettage, so we're pretty sure it won't look dated in a few years. We're thinking of it as an investment piece. For not much of an investment :) (Oh how we love second-hand!)

We were hoping to find a few more bright accessories, but the green handbag and purple shoes should go a long way to livening up our regular black-centric outfits (which we further propogated, heavily, we're aware).

You should absolutely check out this store if you're in the area. Next stop, the Cambridge branch...

Thursday Splurge Vs. Steal

Work outfit- Splurge vs. Steal! by ThriftyStylist featuring Juicy Couture bags

We are so completely addicted to Polyvore it's not even funny. Real work has been pushed to the far, far back burner as we spend our days putting together virtual outfits. We've discovered that, contrary to our previous beliefs, we DO have expensive taste! It has nothing to do with labels-- on Polyvore you see the picture first with no details-- but everything we click on seems to be ridiculously expensive! Who knew?

We were putting together a work outfit (we're lucky enough to be able to wear jeans to work; maybe you are too, or at least on Fridays?) and we found these absolutely insane purple beaded Lorenzi pumps... but at $2500, they sent the outfit careening dangerously out of "thrifty" territory. Then it occurred to us that we should do a splurge vs. steal!

We admit wholeheartedly that the SPLURGE is a cuter outfit-- the shoes are more interesting, the jacket has more detail, even the cami has more shape than the cheaper one-- but for a difference of $3200, we are willing to be adorable rather than stunning.

The ruffly orchid corduroy jacket from the STEAL outfit is available for a scarcely-believeable $10 at a site we'd never seen before but will surely be perusing frequently now, ioffer.com, which seems to be a new and better ebay-- not quite an auction house but rather a resale and trade site. There are 31 million items available as we speak, and 38,000 users online. Hmmm... we'll have to do some more *cough* research now...

Another site we've been turned on to through Polyvore is DorothyPerkins.com - amazing deals (especially with the current conversion rate) and great fashion articles and advice! And they DO ship to the US (unlike Peacocks, grrrr! We love their stuff sooo much; why does America have to lose out?!)

Which outfit do you like better? How did we do?