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.

Continue reading »

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!

Sheer Delight

As you know we update daily here at Pretty Bourgeois, despite the fact that both CityMouse and CountryMouse have full time non-shopping related jobs! However on rare and very exciting occasions we update twice in one day, and today is one of those days! Just to give you an indication of how important this is, the last time we had 2 posts was when CountryMouse had Heinz Curry Ketchup for the first time!

We are happy to report that our little blog has been listed on the women’s blog database Delightful Blogs! Delightful Blogs “cuts through the blog smog” (man do we hate blog smog) by maintaining a nicely edited list of good blogs. We have poked around Delightful Blogs ourselves in the past looking for good internet candy so we are so pleased to be included.  Its so nice to know that someone other than our mothers find us to be delightful!

There is a rating system over there at Delightful Blogs so if you are a loyal reader, a new reader, or just someone with 30 seconds to kill, get over there and rate us (highly). We are talking to you Cheaddar and Boules!

Thanks, England! Pt. 2

I recently read about this online semi-custom dress shop, Style Shake, but somehow didn’t get around to checking it out. Bad move apparently because I finally got around to it last night and it is soooooo very exciting, and that is coming from someone who reserves multiple vowels only for very important matters. Basically you can build your own dresses (and skirts and tops, although I am much more interested in the dresses) using pre-selected design elements and fabrics. AND, they have fitted elbow sleeves, my favorite! Here is the “design studio” with a bunch of sleeve-neckline options:

You can add an impressive number of flourishes (sashes, bows), to your creation, but the beauty of this site to me is being able to put together a simple dress in a natural fabric, something that should be readily available at any given mall, but sadly, isn’t.

Shown above are two dresses I put together yesterday, imaginatively named, from left to right, “Yellow Shift” (mustard linen) and “Grey Day Dress” (gunmetal silk). These are $189 and $169, respectively, and respectfully priced, considering it includes tailoring-you can give these lovely people your actual measurements and they make the item to spec.

As if all this weren’t exciting enough I was able to pull my dress over to Polyvore and try on some brooches- here is my alien self wearing Yellow Shift with black geometric brooch!

I Heart Eyelet

I love dresses for Summer. They are a real no brainer way to look put together and keep cool. I know that black isn’t exactly a summery color. This picture really doesn’t do the dress justice. What you can’t tell from the picture is that this dress is made of eyelet and has a super cute hot pink lining that shows through the lace (in the cute way, not the trashy way). Best of all, the Isaac Mizrahi for Target Open-Neck Shift is only $39.99!!! Order a size down though, this dress runs a little large.

For those of you who need a bit more color or are just looking for something more festive (or a dress with a waist) check out the gorgeous Isaac Mizrahi for Target Andrea Wrap Dress in egg yolk on sale for  $31.49.  This dress is also eyelet and it is once again impossible to tell from the photo!  Target really needs to give better closeups of their fabric.