$300 Dollar Weekend Wardrobe- 4th of July Edition!

Happy Holiday Long Weekend Everyone! I know many of us are going away this weekend, to visit family, enjoy 4th of July festivities in a place more picturesque than where we live, or just to mooch off our friends with summer cottages! Even if you are staying close to home this weekend, the constant barbeques and red, white and blue themed desserts are enough to make you feel like you are on vacation, so a wardrobe plan may come in handy for you too! The mixable-matchable weekend wardrobe above is the extended and celebratory cousin of the perennial PB favorite feature, One Hundred Dollar Outfit, and costs only $296, including the bag! Way to go America!

Red White and Blue print sundress, Old Navy, $24.50, dark denim cuffed shorts, 19.80 at Forever21, White Linen-Cotton trousers, Martin and Osa, $78.00, OldNavy long striped tank tops, $10.50 each, plaid Espadrilles, $22.74, on sale at JCrew, blue flower print smocked top, Mossimo, $17.99 at Target

Urban Outfitters canvas skimmer, $19.99, Le Sport Sac sunglasses print weekend bag, $88

Seafood dishtowels, from Crate and Barrel, $14.95. (Visiting friends: host gift, staying home: head scarf)

Ode to J.Crew

Hooray for another brand new month! Here’s my look at what’s new and wonderful from my favorite mall store, J.Crew. Are you planning a sailing trip for the 4th? If so, you’d be crazy not to wear these adorable Regatta Shorts for $68. You can’t tell from the picture, but there’s also a sail boat on the backside of the shorts!

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5 Things to Love Under 20$: Baby Products for Adults Edition

The best thing about having a baby (besides all that unconditional love and re-populating the earth stuff) is the bright shiny new world of products it opens up for you. In fact, I have discovered some of my favorite products after slathering them on BabyMouse’s bottom! Here are five of my favorite affordables for all ages:

This Chamomile Baby Oil Gel by Johnson and Johnson was the first baby product I used that made me wonder why I hadn’t raided the baby section of CVS before. The scent is great, and light, and I love the formula for legs (it may be a little sticky for arms). It is about $3.99 at many drug stores. Continue reading »

Jewelry by Zubie*

While engaging in a favorite past time of 30-somethings everywhere, googling people from high school (or in this case actually googling my high school itself) I came across ZubieNYC. Zubie is a gorgeous line of jewelry created by my high school classmate, Betsy Reeves. As a lover of statement necklaces Zubie is pretty much a dream come true for me. Warning, the following items are considered investment pieces (a/k/a splurges) by PrettyBourgeois’s frugal writers. Here are a few of my favorite Zubies.

My favorite piece is the Bianca necklace for $550. I know, kinda pricey right? Well it is onyx and I’m pretty sure that’s a semi-precious stone. For those of you who want to make a statement but aren’t quite interested in shelling out that much cash, I also love the Francesca for $280 (its made of onyx too). Continue reading »

Ready to Buy

Net-a-Porter is having an insane in the membrane sale right now, the kind of sale that puts mid range designer clothes in an Ann Taylor-esque price range. The kind of sale that makes me immediately sit down and ignore my family until I have viewed every item.

This dress is by TBags, I love bright dresses, and this blouson top with the super wide neckline is so pretty. I am totally wearing a camisol with this, but still pretty. It is $88, which is 50% off. The description on the site seems to indicate that this is a beach cover up, but as CityMouse has pointed out, there are often cute dresses hiding out in the beach cover up area.

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A Lotta Links

Here at PB we LOVE Nick Olsen and his great blog for Domino, The Deal Hunter.  Nick is Miles Redd’s thrifty and creative assistant, which alone is enough to make uslove him, but to top it off he’s also just about the cutest fellow we’ve ever seen.  Anyway, this week Nick had a great post about a new (or new to us anyway) modern baby line from (are you sitting down for this?) Wal*Mart call BabyMod.  I particularly like the Parklane  and Olivia furniture.  The crib is $299.98, changing table is $249.98 and the dresser is $274.98. Continue reading »

My Lady, We Must Flea

Generally I give the big Whatever to all the fanatical New York city loving that goes on, but I have to say this new enormous flea market  I read about in House Beautiful (small space issue!) looks totally awesome and much better than anything we have around here.  We do have Mohr and McPherson, which isn’t really flea-ey but does have several floors of crowded goodness, and we have Brimfield, which seems to be the greatest thing ever but is in a strange, far off land called western massachusetts.  Although, we are having a field trip to Brimfield in July, we’ll let you know how it goes!  Anyway Brooklyn Flea appears to have everything one could ever want in a shopping experience:  it is outside, if you live in Brooklyn it is probably on your way home from breakfast, it has treats (like brownies), and it has masses of stuff to poke through, some of which appears to be affordable! Which I guess would make sense, it being a flea market. 

The flea markets I have gone to in Mass all seem to sell mainly rubber beer cozies (”Just Say Yo”) and scary wigs, but these vendors all look like those hidden used furniture stores that you know are out there en masse and desperately wish to know where.   Best of all, the vendors are all listed on the website and some of them sell online! which is where countrymice with internet connection can get involved.

 I have been working my way through the list, but my favorite so far is Bloom Fine Art and Antiques- it has many illustrations and paintings available for online sale.   I like these two round military costume illustrations, which are $99 (for both).  Sometimes it is hard to find framed things that are round.

Bridal Chic on the Cheap

I’m sure there are tons of brides who, like me, do ot have the funds to splurge on the wedding gown.  Not to fret!  The folks over at Nordstroms have TONS of affordable options for the budget bride.  Here are a few of my favorites for under $200.  Please note that many inexpensive wedding gowns seem to require a particularly svelte figure, the amount you’ll save when you stop buying food could go towards a really fancy pair of shoes!

The JS Boutique Beaded Crisscross Matte Jersey Gown  is $180.  I love matte jersey.  Its an incredibly comfortable and low maintenance fabric.  Some people feel it makes a gown look casual, but I am not one of those people.  The extra bit of sparkle in this dress really fancies it up too. Continue reading »

For Dainty Pack Rats

I love this little iron cake stand-like toiletry tray with mirror. I am always on the lookout for things that will help me clean my house in a hurry- and this looks like I could load it up with a bunch of makeup and move it from bathroom counter, to bureau, and back again, depending on which surface needs to look tidy and makeup free at any given time. Portability is key here because ever since I used to pack my pink and purple caboodles full of “makeup” for ski trips in the seventh grade (makeup back then for me being lip smackers in a million different flavors and CLEAR mascara), I have a habit of keeping tons of half empty potions in a big messy bag in my bathroom vanity, the contents of which often migrates to my counter. With this I can squirrel my huge pile of messy makeup all over the house! It is on sale for $54.99 at PB Teen.

Fortress of Solitude

I have been admiring the Metropolitan Chandelier from Williams Sonoma Home for some time now.  It actually disappeared for a while and then recently reappeared, thanks Chuck.  I love what a statement piece it is for only $725.  The statement its making is clearly “Welcome to my castle made of ice, Mr. Luther.” I realize that’s not the statement everyone is trying to make in their dining room,  but I think it would look quite glamorous in a hollywood regency setting.  And you just can’t beat the price!